
iV^sd 



THE 

GREATEST HIGHWAY 

IN 

THE WORLD 



Historical, Industrial and Descriptive In- 
formation of the Towns, Cities and 
Country passed through between 
New York and Chicago via The 
New York Central Lines 



Illustrated 



Based on the 



Encyclopaedia Britannica 



FOREWORD ^ A*$ 2, 

In furtherance of giving the utmost service to the public, the New 
York Central Lines asked the editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to 
prepare this booklet descriptive of and vivifying the historical develop- 
ment of what has been termed "The Greatest Highway in the World." 

It is presented to you in the hope that it may prove a pleasant com- 
panion on a journey over our Lines. The information will afford a new 
appreciation of the historical significance and industrial importance of the 
cities, towns and country which the New York Central Lines serve. 

The New York Central Lines enter twelve states and serve territory ' 
containing 51,530,784 inhabitants or 50.3 per cent of the nation's popula- 
tion. This rich and busy territory produces 64 per cent of the country's 
manufactured products and mines a similar proportion of its coal. 

This system does approximately 10 per cent of the railroad .transpor- 
tation business of the United States, although its main-track mileage is 
only 6 per cent. In other words the business it handles exceeds that 
of the average railroad, mile for mile, by nearly 100 per cent. The New 
York Central carries 52 per cent of all through passengers between New 
York and Chicago, the remaining 48 per cent being divided among five 
other lines. The freight traffic of the New York Central Lines in 1920 
was greater than that carried by all the railroads of France and England 
combined. 

The scenes that stretch before the eyes of passengers on these Lines 
are rich with historic interest. Few persons know that the second settle- 
ment in the United States was at Albany and that it antedated Plymouth 
by several years. Probably fewer persons know that the first United 
States flag was carried in battle at Fort Stanwix, now the city of Rome, 
N. Y. We hope that the reader will discover in the following pages 
more than one historic shrine which he will wish to visit. 

It has been said that the history of a country's civilization is the his- 
tory of its highways. Certainly the development of a great system such 
as the New York Central is an important element in the progress and 
prosperity of the country which it serves. This railroad is, in fact, a 
public institution, and it will prosper to the extent that it gives service to 
the public. 

The New York Central Lines have the initial advantage that they 
follow the great natural routes along which the first trails were blazed by 
the red men, and are almost free from grades, sharp curves and other 
hindrances to comfortable and efficient transportation. Thus the road owes 
its superiority primarily to the fact that it lends itself to a maximum de- 
gree of efficiency. 

But service as it is conceived by the New York Central, involves many 
aspects. One is the careful provision for the comfort and convenience 
of passengers ; another is adequate and efficient facilities for serving the 
interests of shippers. In other words, New York Central service means 
not only fast and luxurious passenger trains, but also the rapid handling 
of freight. To give such service requires the highest class of equipment— 
the best rails, the finest cars, the most powerful locomotives, etc. — but it 
also requires an operating force of loyal, highly trained employes. In 
both respects the New York Central Lines excel. 

The inspiring record of the system's growth through public approval 
and patronage is fundamentally a tribute to the service rendered, con- 
stantly advanced and developed in pace with public requirements. The 
accompanying booklet is in one sense an expression of past achievement, 
but it is also an earnest of greater accomplishment to come. 

§)C!.A622537 

Copyright, 1921, by Encyclopedia Britannica, I 



New York to Albany 

NEW YORK, Pop. 5, 261,151. Grand Central Terminal. 
(Train 51 leaves 8:31 ; No. 3, 8 :46 ; No. 41, 1 :01 ; No. 23, 2 :46 ; 
No. 19, 5:31. Eastbound: train 6 arrives 9:22; No. 26, 9:40; 
No. 16, 4:00; No. 22, 5:2s. 1 ) Fifty years ago when Commo- 
dore Vanderbilt began the first Grand Central Station — depot, 
they called it, in the language of the day — he made one error 
of judgment. His choice of a site proved to be magnificently 
right, though he selected a spot that was practically open 
country, then technically known as 42nd St. The story goes 
— it is a typically American story — that his friends laughed at 
him, remarking that a person might as well walk to Uoston 
or Albany as go away up to 42nd St. to take a train for those 
cities. But the people did come, and they admired the com- 
modore's new station, which is perhaps not surprising, since 
the commodore had set himself to build the greatest terminal in 
the world. Many Americans considered the new "depot" as 
only second to the capitol at Washington, and it served as an 
excellent show place when visitors came to town. Europe 
might have its cathedrals, but it had no Grand Central Station ! 

The commodore's one mistake lay in thinking that his 
fine new station would last a century. Within ten years an 
addition had to be built; in 1898 it had to be entirely re- 
modeled and enlarged, and fifteen years later it was entirely 
demolished to make way for the present building which would 
be adequate for handling the city's ever-increasing millions. 

There seems to be little doubt that the city of N. Y. and its en- 
virons has become within the last decade larger even than London. 
The population of greater London (including all the separate adminis- 



1 Throughout this handbook the time is given at which trains are scheduled to 
leave or pass through the cities or towns mentioned. From New York to Chicago, 
Train No. 51 is the Empire State Express; No. 3, the Chicago Express; No. 41. 
The Number Forty-one; No. 25, the Twentieth Century, and No. 19, the Lake Shore 
Limited. In the reverse route, irom Chicago to New York, No. 6 is the Fifth 
Avenue Special; No. 26 is the Twentieth Century; No. 16, the New York and 
New England Special, and No. 22, the Lake Shore Limited. The time given is 
Eastern Standard Time at all points east of Toledo, and Central Standard Time, 
which is one hour slower, at Toledo and all points west. (When Daylight Saving 
Time is adopted during the summer it is one hour faster than Standard time, but all 
time given in this booklet is Standard time.) The time between 12.01 o'clock 
midnight and 12.00 o'clock noon is indicated by light face type; between 12.01 o'clock 
noon and 12.00 o'clock midnight by dark face type. The use of an asterisk (*) indi- 
cates places recommended as especially worth visiting. Population figures are those 
of the 1920 U. S. Census. 



4 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

trative entities within the Metropolitan Police District) is estimated at 
7,435,379. Jersey City, Hoboken, and the other N. J. cities on the west, 
as well as Yonkers, Mt. Vernon, New Rochelle, etc., on the north, al- 
though politically detached, are included in the "city" of N. Y. in the 
larger sense, their political detachment being in a certain sense ac- 
cidental. Including these, the population of N. Y. area correspond- 
ing to the Metropolitan London area is 7,583,607. The population 
of N. Y. City proper is 5,261,151. The London area comparable 
with this, viz., the part of London governed by the London County 
Council has a population of 5,028,974. Comparing the areas of the two 
— N. Y. C. with 327 sq. miles and London with 692 sq. miles, it is 
hard to understand how the respective populations should approximate 
each other so nearly until it is remembered that New York grows per- 



Commodore Vanderbilt 

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1 794-1 S77) at the 
age of 16 bought a sailboat in which he 
carried farm produce and passengers be- 
tween Staten Island, where he lived, and 
X. V. He was soon doing so profitable a 
business that in 1817, realizing the supe- 
riority of steam over sailing vessels, he 
was able to sell his sloops and schooners, 
and became the captain of a steam ferry 
between N. Y. and Xew Brunswick. His 
projects grew enormously. lie inaugurated 
steamship lines between N. Y. and San 
Francisco, N. Y. and Havre, and other 
places. In 1857-1862 he sold his steam- 
ships and turned his attention more and 
more to the development of railways, with 
the result that before his death he had 
built up and was a majority share owner 
in the N. Y. Central & Hudson River, 
the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern, 
the Harlem, and the Michigan Central & 
Canada Southern railways, and had holdings 
in many others. He died at N. Y. in 1877. 

pendicularly instead of horizontally, that it usurps more air rather than 
more land. In some of the downtown business streets, such as Wall 
or Rector, the buildings tower so high above the narrow thoroughfare 
that they form a kind of deep canyon along which the wind is drawn 
as through a tunnel. 

In the colonial period Philadelphia was the most important city, 
commercially, politically and socially, while just before the War of 
Independence, Boston, with a population of 20,000 was the most 
nourishing town in all the colonies. During the Revolutionary War, 
N. Y. C. had fallen to a population of 10,000 and in 1790 it had barely 
gained a position of leadership with 33,131, but by 1840 N. Y. C. had 
«rown to be a city of 313,000 while Philadelphia had 95,000 and Boston 
93,000. 

Today one of the most remarkable features of New York 
is the Grand Central Terminal. The exterior finish is granite 
and Indiana lime-stone; the style somewhat Doric, modified 
by the French Renaissance. Over the entrance to the main 




NEW YORK TO ALBANY 5 

building- is a great arch surmounted by a statuary group 
wherein Mercury, symbolizing the glory of commerce, is sup- 
ported by Minerva and Hercules who represent mental and 
moral force. 

Within, the main concourse of the station proper is an 
immense room with a floor space of 37,625 sq. ft. where the 
New York City Hall might be set and yet leave room to spare. 
It is covered with a vaulted ceiling 125 ft. high, painted a 
soft cloudy blue and starred over with the constellations of 
heaven. Great dome-shaped windows, three each at the east 
and west ends, furnish light. 

The entire site of the Grand Central Terminal comprises 
30 blocks and 80 acres which above the surface are covered 
with a great variety of buildings, making almost a city in 
itself. Moreover, there is direct subway entrance to three 
large hotels, capable of housing as many as 10,000 persons, and 
to all these conveniences is added that of comfortable tempera- 
ture throughout the terminal, no matter how cold the weather. 





,....- -~7CTs=rf«jsr 






"•it » %? I 



The Main Concourse, Grand Central Terminal 




Map of New York City, 1775 

This survey, made in the winter of 1775, shows the city proper as it existed 
during the Revolutionary War. Places indicated by the lettering are described under 
the original as follows: A, Fort George. B, Batteries [at the two points of the 
island]. C, Military Hospital [south of Pearl St.]. D, Secretary's Office [near 
Fort George]. E, [Not shown]. F, Soldiers' Barracks [at extreme right]. G, 
Ship Yards [lower right-hand corner]. H, City Hall [Broad and Wall streets, site 
of present Sub-Treasury building]. I, Exchange. J, K, Jail and Workhouse [both 
situated on the "intended square or common," now City Hall Square]. L, College 
[Church and Murray streets; this was King's College, now Columbia University]. 
M, Trinity Church [the present Trinity was built in 1839-46, though it stands on 
the site of the old church built in 1696]. N, St. George's Chapel. O, St. Paul's 
Chapel [built in 1756; the oldest church-edifice still standing in N. Y. C.]. P to Z. 
[various churches]. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 7 

As distinctively "New York" as the sky-scrapers, are the hotels 
and apartment houses. Of the latter, there are more than in any other 
city in the world, and the number of persons who are giving up their 
houses and adopting this manner of life is steadily increasing. The 
first thing, in fact, that impresses a visitor on his arrival is the seem- 
ingly endless amount of buildings adopted for transients. A few of 
the largest hotels have space for several thousand persons at one 
time. 

The old station in 1903-'12 was torn down, brick by brick, 
while at the same time the new building- was being erected 
■ — and all without disturbing the traffic or hindering the 
75,000 to 125,000 people that passed through the station each 




New Amsterdam (Now New York City) in 1671 
The point of land in the foreground is now known as the Battery. The large 
building inside the stockade is a church. In the middle foreground is a gallows. 
The hills in the background form the approach to the present Morningside Heights. 



day. This was an extraordinary engineering feat, for not 
only were 3,000,000 yards of earth and rock taken out to 
provide for the underground development, but hundreds of 
tons of dynamite were used for blasting. Among the im- 
provements introduced in the new station are ramps instead 
of stairways, the division of out-going from in-going traffic, 



8 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

and the elimination of the cold trainshed. The substitution 
of electricity for steam as a motive power in the metropolitan 
area made possible the reclamation of Park Avenue and the 
cross streets from 45th St. to 46th St. — about 20 blocks in all 
— by depressing and covering- the tracks. 

At 56th St. the tracks begin to rise from the long tunnel 
and pass through the tenement district of the upper East 
Side. The side streets seem filled with nothing but children 
and vegetable carts, while along the pavements shrill women 
with shawls over their heads are bargaining for food with 
street-vendors. As the railroad tracks rise higher still, we 
run on the level with the upper-story windows out of which 
the tenants lean and gossip with one another. 




The Jumel Mansion, New York City 



4 M. HARLEM STATION (125th St.). (Train 5/ passes 
8:41; No. 3, 8:57; No. 41, 1:12; No. 25, 2:56; No. 19, 5:41. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 9:11; No. 26, 9:29; No. 16, 3:49; 
No. 22, 5:25.) Old Harlem was "Nieuw Haerlem," a settle- 
ment established in 1658 by Gov. Peter Stuyvesant in tin 
northeastern part of Manhattan Island. It existed for 200 
years but is now lust under modern Harlem, which centers 
about 125th St. In this neighborhood to the west occurred 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



the battle of Harlem Heights — a lively skirmish fought Sept. 
16, 1776, opposite the west front of the present Columbia 
University, and resulting in a victory for the forces of Gen. 
Washington, who up to that time had suffered a number of 
reverses on Long Island and elsewhere. The battle was di- 
rected by Washington from the Jumel mansion,* 160th St. 
and Amsterdam Ave., the most famous house, historically, on 
the island of Manhattan. It is still standing. 

The house was built in 1763 by Roger Morris for his bride, Mary 
Thilipse of Yonkers, for whose hand, it is said, Washington had been 
an unsuccessful suitor. The house was subsequently owned by John 

Jacob Astor and then passed 
into the hands of Stephen Jumel, 
a French merchant, who, with 
his wife Eliza, added new fame 
to the old house. They enter- 
tained here Lafayette, Louis Na- 
poleon, Joseph Bonaparte and 
Jerome Bonaparte. Aaron Burr 
(1756-1836) in his old age, ap- 
peared at the mansion with a 
clergyman, and married Mme. 
Jumel, then a widow. She di- 
vorced him shortly afterward, 
and he died in poverty on Staten 
Island, 1836. Alexander Ham- 
ilton, whom Burr killed in the 
famous duel at Weehawken, 
N. J. (July 11, 1804) owned a 
country place in the neighbor- 
hood, "Hamilton Grange," which 
now stands at 140th St. and Con- 
vent Ave. 

Leaving Manhattan, that 
extraordinary island which 
Peter Minuit, director-gen- 
eral of New Netherlands, 
bought in 1626 from the In- 
dians for sixty guilders' 
worth of goods (about $24), 
we cross the Harlem River 
to the Borough of the Bronx, 
named for Jonas Bronck, the 
first white settler, who made 
his home in 1639 near the 
Bronx Kills (where the Har- 
lem River flows into Long 
Island Sound). 




Peter Stuyvesant and the Cobbler 
Peter Stuyvesant, Dutch Governor of 
X. V. from 1647 to 1664 and a valiant 
member of the Reformed Church, had an 
intense prejudice against all other sects. 
At Flushing a Baptist cobbler, William 
Wickendam, ventured to preach "and even 
went with the people into the river and 
dipped them." He was fined 12,500 
guilders ($5,000) and ordered to be ban- 
ished. As he was a poor man the debt 
was remitted, but he was obliged to leave 
the province. 



The original price paid for the Bronx — or a large share of it- 



10 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

was "2 gunns, 2 kettles, 2 coats, 2 shirts, 2 adzes, 1 barrel of cider, 
and 6 bitts of money." The assessed value of Manhattan today is 
$5,116,000,000 and that of the Bronx $732,000,000 (realty). 

The Hudson River Division of the New York Central 
turns to the left and follows the course of the Harlem River, 
7 M. long, which separates Manhattan Island from the main- 
land and connects the Hudson with the East River. On the 
south bank of the Harlem are Washing-ton Heights, with 
the Speedway on the immediate bank, and Fort George (near 
193d Street) named from a Revolutionary redoubt. The 
Speedway was built at a cost of $3,000,000 for the special use 
of drivers of fast horses. On the right, after passing the High 
Bridge, which carries the old Croton aqueduct, one of the 
feeders of the city water supply, and the Washington Bridge, 
are University Heights and (farther to the west) the township 
of Fordham, where the cottage in which Edgar Allen Poe lived 
from 1844 to 1849 and wrote Ulalume and Annabel Lcc, is still 
preserved. 

New York University, on University Heights, was founded in 
1832; the principal buildings include Gould Hall, a dormitory; the 
library, designed by Stanford White, and the Hall of Fame, extending 
around the library in the form of an open colonnade, 500 ft. long, in 
which are preserved the names of great Americans. 

11 M. SPUYTEN DUYVIL. (Train 51 passes 8:51; 
No. 3, 9:09; No. 41, 1:23; No. 25, 3:06; No. 29, 5:53. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 8:57; No. 26, 9:17; No. 16, 3:37; No. 22, 
5:02.) Spuyten Duyvil is situated on Spuyten Duyvil Creek, 
celebrated by Washington Irving, which connects the Harlem 
and Hudson Rivers. In recent years the creek has been en- 
larged into a ship canal. 

The town and stream receive their curious name from the follow- 
ing story, according to Irving. In 1664, when the Dutch were being 
threatened by the British, Anthony van Corlear, Dutch trumpeter to 
Gov. Stuyvesant, was despatched to sound the alarm. It was a stormy 
night and the creek was impassable. Anthony "swore most valour- 
ously that he would swim across it 'in spite of the devil' (en spuyt 
den duyvil) but unfortunately sank forever to the bottom." The 
"duyvil" had got him. "His ghost still haunts the neighborhood, and 
his trumpet has often been heard of a stormy night." 

Across the Hudson, along which our route now lies for 
nearly 150 M., can be seen the Palisades, an extraordinary 
ridge of basaltic rock rising picturesquely to a height of be- 
tween 300 and 500 ft. and extending along the west bank of 
the Hudson about 12 M. from a point north of Ft. Lee, N. J., 
to Palisades, N. Y. 

The peculiar hexagonal jointing of the rock, which has given rise 
to the name Palisades, is an unusual geological formation; the only 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



11 



other important places where it is found are at Fihgal's Cave in Scot- 
land and the Giant's Causeway in Ireland. The beauty of the Pali- 
sades was threatened by quarrying and blasting operations until N. Y. 
and N. J. agreed to the establishment of the Palisades Interstate Park, 
which comprises 36,000 acres (1,000 acres in New Jersey and 35,000 
in New York State). 

"The spacious and stately characteristics of the Hudson from the 
Palisades to the Catskills are as epical as the loveliness of the Rhine 
is lyrical. The Hudson implies a continent beyond. No European 
river is so lordly in its bearing, none flows in such state to the sea. 
Of all the rivers that I know, the Hudson, with this grandeur, has the 
most exquisite episodes." — George William Curtis. 




The Half Moon at Yonkers 
In September. 1609, Henry Hudson started up the Hudson in the "Half Moon," 
which attracted frequent visits from the natives along- the route. 

To the right, just north of Spuyten Duyvil, is a high 
promontory, upon which stands a lofty monument to Henry 
Hudson, who had his first skirmish here with the Indians 
after entering N. Y. Bay in Sept. 1609. With an excellent 
harbour at its mouth, and navigable waters leading 150 M. 
into a fertile interior, the Hudson River began to attract ex- 
plorers and settlers soon after the discovery of America. Ver- 
razano, the Florentine navigator, sent out by the French king, 
Francis I, ventured a short distance up the Hudson in 1524, 
almost 100 years before the Pilgrim Fathers, and in 1609 
Henry Hudson sailing in the "Half Moon" nearly up to the 



12 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



site of Albany, demonstrated the extent and importance of 
the river that bears his name. 




New York Slave-Market — About 1730 
Slaves were introduced into N. Y. as early as 1626 when the West India Co. 
(a Dutch company), which had large establishments on the coast of Guinea, brought 
negroes to Manhattan, and practiced the slave trade here "without remorse." It 
is said that in proportion to population N. Y. imported as many Africans as Vir- 
ginia. That New York did not become a slave-state like Carolina was, according 
to Bancroft, "due to climate and not to the superior humanity of its founders. 
[Gov.] Stuyvesant was instructed to use every exertion to promote the sale of 
negroes. They were imported sometimes by way of the West Indies, often directly 
from Guinea, and were sold at auction to the highest bidder. The average price 
was less than $140." With the extension of English rule to N. Y. in 1664 the 
slave trade in this colony passed into- the hands of the British. It is estimated 
that the total import of slaves into all the British colonies of America and the 
West Indies from 1680 to 1786 was 2,130,000. The traffic was then carried on 
principally from Liverpool, London and other English ports; the entire number 
of ships sailing from these ports then engaged in the slave traffic was 192, and in 
them space was provided for the transport of 47,146 negroes. The native chiefs on 
the African coasts took up the hunt for human beings and engaged in forays, some- 
times even on their own subjects, for the purpose of procuring slaves to be 
exchanged for western commodities. They often set fire to a village by night 
and captured the inhabitants when trying to escape. Out of every lot of 100 
shipped from Africa, about 17 died either during the passage or before the sale 
at Jamaica, while not more than 50 lived through the "seasoning" process and 
became effective plantation laborers. Slavery in N. Y. was continued till 1827. 
It was then abolished by the terms of an act passed by the N. Y. Assembly ten 
years earlier. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 13 

Henry Hudson, English navigator, made four important voyages 
to find a passage to China by the northeast or northwest route; it was 
on the third venture undertaken at the instance of the Dutch East 
India Co., that he found the Hudson, probably a greater discovery 
than the one he undertook to make. With a mixed crew of 18 or 20 
men he started on his voyage in the "Half Moon," April 6, 1609, and 
soon was among the ice towards the northern part of Barents Sea. 
His men mutinied and he was forced to seek the passage farther south. 
Thus eventually he entered the fine bay of what is now N. Y. harbour, 
Sept. 3, 1609. John Fiske says: "In all that he attempted he failed, 
and yet he achieved great results that were not contemplated in his 
schemes. He started two immense industries, the Spitzbergen whale 
fisheries and the Hudson Bay fur trade; and he brought the Dutch to 
Manhattan Island. No realization of his dreams could have ap- 
proached the astonishing reality which would have greeted him could 
he have looked through the coining centuries and caught a glimpse of 
what the voyager now beholds in sailing up the bay of New York." 
The Dutch called the Hudson the North River (a name which is still 
used) in contra-distinction to the Delaware which they called the 
South River. 

The lower Hudson is really a fiord — a river valley into 
which ocean water has been admitted by the sinking of the 
land, transforming a large part of the valley into an inlet, 
and thus opening it to commerce as far as Troy (about 150 
M.), up to which point the river is tidal and, therefore, partly 
salt. The Hudson extends above Troy for 150 M. farther, 
but navigation is interrupted by shallows and swift currents. 
Below Troy the fall is only five feet in a distance of 145 M. 
This lower, navigable portion of the Hudson was the only 
feasible route through the Atlantic highlands, and in conse- 
quence it has been one of the most significant factors in the 
development of the United States. New York City likewise 
owes its phenomenal development largely to this great high- 
way of commerce. 

The invention and successful operation of the steamboat, 
the first line of which was established on the Hudson by Ful- 
ton in 1807, gave early impetus to the importance of N. Y. C, 
and the building of the Hudson River R. R., one of the first 
successful railways, now a part of the New York Central 
Lines, and the opening of the Erie Canal (1825) connecting 
the Hudson with the Great Lakes and the far interior, were 
among other contributory factors in the city's growth. 

15 M. YONKERS, Pop. 100,226. (Train 51 passes 8:56; 
No. ?, 9:15; No. 41, 1:29; No. 25, 3:11; No. 19, 5:59. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 8:52; No. 26, 9:12; No. 16, 3:31, No. 22, 
4:56.) When the Dutch founded New Netherlands, the pres- 
ent site of Yonkers was occupied by an Indian village, known 



14 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

as Nappeckamack, or "town of the rapid water," and a great 
rock near the month of the Nepperhan creek (to the north of 
the station) was long a place of Indian "worship. 

In the early days, the Hudson River Valley from Manhattan to Al- 
bany was occupied by Algonquin tribes, while the central part of the 
state along the Mohawk Valley had been conquered by the famous Iro- 
quois Confederation, of which the Mohawks were the most warlike. 
The Mohawks soon drove out the Mohicans, who claimed as their 
territory the east bank of the Hudson. On the whole, the Dutch lived 
peaceably with their Indian neighbors, but an attempt of Gov. Kieft to 
collect tribute from them led to an Indian war (1641), which resulted 
in the destruction of most of the outlying settlements. Later a treaty 
of alliance was made with the Iroquois Confederation, which protected 
the early settlements in N. Y. from those attacks which occurred so 
frequently elsewhere in this period. The treaty was renewed when the 
British took possession of New Netherlands, and lasted until the 
Revolutionary War. 

The land where Yonkers now stands was part of an estate 
granted in 1646 by the Dutch government to Adrian Van Der 
Donck, the first lawyer and historian of New Netherlands. 
The settlement was called the "De Jonkheer's land" or "De 
Yonkeer's" — meaning the estate of the young lord — and after- 
wards Yonkers. Subsequently the tract passed into the hands 
of Frederick Philipse, the "Dutch millionaire," as the English 
called him, some of whom alleged that he owed a large part 
of his fortune to piratical and contraband ventures. The sus- 
picion was strong enough to force Philipse out of the gov- 
erning council of the colony, and he returned to his manor 
where he died (1702) at the age of 76. 

It was even charged that he was one of the backers of Capt. 
William Kidd (1645-1701), for whose buried treasure search has been 
made along the Hudson, as well as in countless places along the 
Atlantic Coast. Capt. Kidd began the career which made him no- 
torious under a commission from the British Government to appre- 
hend pirates. He sailed from Plymouth, England, in May 1696, filled 
up his crew in N. Y. in the following year, and then set out for Mada- 
gascar, the principal rendezvous of the buccaneers. Deserting his ship, 
he threw in his lot with theirs and captured several rich booties. Re- 
turning to N. Y., he was arrested, sent to London, found guilty and 
hanged. Of his "treasure" about £14,000 was recovered from his ship 
and from Gardner's Island, off the east end of Long Island. The 
stories of large hoards still undiscovered are probably mythical. 

The Philipse manor house,* one of the best examples of 
Dutch colonial architecture in America, erected in 1682 and 
enlarged in 1745, was the second residence built by the Phil- 
ipses (the other is at Tarrytown) and is now maintained as 
a museum for colonial and Revolutionary relics. It was 
confiscated by the legislature in 1779 in reprisal for the sus- 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



IS 




Philipse Manor House, Yonkers, 1682 

This famous old house, said to be one of the best examples of Dutch colonial 
architecture in America, was built by Frederick Philipse, first lord of the manor of 
Philipsburg-. It was confiscated by the State of New York after the Revolution 
and for many years served as the City Hall of Yonkers. It is now a museum. 



pected ''Toryism" of the third Frederick Philipse, the great- 
grandson of the first lord of the manor and his second suc- 
cessor. Before being converted into a museum it served for 
many years as the City Hall of Yonkers. 

Yonkers has some important manufactures with an an- 
nual production of $75,000,000 and 15,000 wage earners; its 
output includes passenger and freight elevators, foundry and 
machine shop products, refined sugar, carpets, rugs and hats. 
It has one of the largest carpet factories in the world. 

The country round Yonkers is dotted with fine estates. 
Conspicuous to the right, 2 M. north of the station, is the 
hattlemented tower of "Greystone," once the home of Samuel 
|. Tilden and now owned by Samuel Untermyer, the N. Y. 
lawyer. 

Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886), a lawyer and reformer, served one 
term as governor of N. Y., and was later candidate for the presidency 
against Rutherford B. Hayes. He had become famous for his attacks 



16 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

on the notorious Tweed ring of N. Y. C, and later for his exposure of 
the "Canal ring," a set of plunderers who had been engaged in ex- 
ploiting the N. Y. canal system. He was given the Democratic nomi- 
nation for president in recognition of his services as a reformer. The 
Republicans nominated Hayes, and the result was the disputed election 
of 1876, when two sets of returns were sent to Washington from the 
States of Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and Oregon. As the 
Federal Constitution contains no provision for settling a dispute of 
this kind, the two houses of Congress agreed to the appointment of an 
extra-Constitutional Body, the Electoral Commission, which decided 
all the contests in favor of the Republican candidates. Tilden's friends 
charged that they had been made a victim of a political "steam roller," 
but he advised them to make no protests. Tilden left more than 
$2,000,000 for a library in N. Y. (now consolidated with the N. Y. 
Public Library). 

Across the Hudson River from Hastings (19 M.) can be 
seen Indian Head, the highest point on the Palisades, near 
which (about l /y M. farther north) is the boundary between 
X. J. and N. Y. ; from this point northward both shores be- 
long to N. Y. 

20 M. DOBBS FERRY, Pop. 4,401. (Train 51 passes 
8:58; No. 3, 9:23; No. 41, 1:37; No. 25, 3:18; No. 19, 6:07. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:45; No. 26, 9:05; No. 16, 3:23; 
No. 22, 4:48.) About the time of the Revolutionary War, a 
Swede named Jeremiah Dobbs, established a ferry here con- 
necting with the northern end of the Palisades (visible on the 
left across the river). Originally only a dugout or skill, it 
was the first ferry north of Manhattan, and was kept up by 
the Dobbs family for a century. In times past the residents 
have often tried to change the name of the town to something 
more "distinguished," but the old name could not be displaced. 

The story goes that 50 years ago a mass meeting was held in 
the village at which it was proposed to name the town after one of the 
captors of Maj. Andre — either Paulding or Van Wart. The meeting 
came to nothing when an old resident suggested Wart-on-Hudson. 

The strategic position of Dobbs Ferry gave it importance 
during the War of Independence. It was the rendezvous of 
the British after the battle of White Plains in Nov. 1775 and 
a continental division under Gen. Lincoln was stationed here 
in Jan. 1777. The American army under Washington en- 
camped near Dobbs Ferry on the 4th of July, 1781, and started 
in the following month for Yorktown, Va., where the final 
victory of the war took place. Two years later (May 6, 1783) 
Washington and Sir Guy Carleton met at Dobbs Ferry to 
negotiate for the evacuation of all British troops, and to make 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



17 



terms for the final settlement recognizing American Independ- 
ence. Their meeting place was the old Van Brugh Livingston 
house. 

Peter Van Brugh Livingston (1710-1792), prominent merchant and 
Whig political leader in N. Y., was one of the founders of the College 
of X. J. (now Princeton), and was president of the first Provincial 
Congress of N. Y. (1775). His brother, William, was the first gov- 
ernor of N. J. 

22 M. IRVINGTON, Pop. 2,701. (Train 5/ passes 9:06; 
No. 3, 9:25; No. 41, 1:39; No. 25, 3:21; No. 19, 6:11. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 8:43; No. 26, 9:03; No. 16, 3:21; No. 22, 
4:46.) "Sunnyside," a stone building "as full of angles and 
corners as a cocked hat" and situated behind a screen of trees 
a little north of the station, was the home of Washington 
Irving, for whom the town was named. First erected by 




Reception of President Washington at New York, April 23rd, 1789 

After the ratifying of the federal constitution. Washington, in 1788, was 
unanimously elected president. On April 23', 17S9, he arrived from Virginia at 
New York, where he was received with a frenzy of gratitude and praise, and was 
inaugurated at the Senate hall which stood on the site of the present U. S. Sul>- 
Treasury building. The stone whereon Washington stood when he came out of 
the house is preserved in the south wall of this building. He is described as 
wearing a suit of homespun so finely woven that "it was universally mistaken for 
a foreign manufactured superfine cloth." This, of course, was a high tribute to 
domestic industrv. 



Bno "» BwoAirnH* 




War and Merchant Ships of Revolutionary Days 
These are authentic pictures, showing actual details, of the ships used by the 
Americans and British at the time of the Revolutionary War. They were originally 
engraved for the First Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica (1768). In the 
centre is a first rate ship of war, "the noblest machine that ever was invented," to 
quote the First Edition ; and the illustration below shows the interior construction 
of the hull. Tt will be noticed that there are three gun decks, below which is the 
orlop, or storage deck. "A common first rate man of war," says the First Edition, 
"has its gun deck from 159 to 178 ft. in length, and from 44 to 51 broad. It 
contains from 1313 to 2000 tons; has from 706 to 1000 men, and carries from 96 
to 100 guns. The expense of building a common first rate, with guns, tackling and 
rigging is computed at 60,000 £ sterling." 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



19 



Wolfert Acker in 1656, it was considerably enlarged by 
Irving in 1835. 

The east end is covered with ivy said to be grown from 
a slip given to Irving when he visited Scott at Abbotsford. 
At Irvington we come to Tappan Zee (to be seen on the left), 
where the Hudson widens into a lake-like expanse, 10 M. 



"Sunnyside," Irving's Home After 1835 

After a long sojourn abroad, Wash- 
ington Irving returned in 1835 to "Sun- 
nyside," said to have been built orig- 
inally in 1656. It was considerably 
enlarged by Irving, who spent the re- 
mainder of his life here. "Sunnyside" 
is now owned by Irving's descendants. 







ISrfLj**- 


*#* 




b*^5?83 


■/ *? T % HI 


£* 


Lj#1 ! 


"jj 








%"■&*■* a 


jSj 




l/ 1 --^ 5s 




l^tiL 


1 


Pvilll 


; fg§H" ''J 
i *. Jjpl 1 




;|^pCT 

























long and 3 to 4 M. wide. It is a favorite cruising place for 
ghosts and goblins, according to popular legend. 

There is, for example, Rambout van Dam, the roystering youtli 
from Spuyten Duyvil, who was doomed to journey on the river till 
Judgment Day — all because he started to row home after midnight 
from a Saturday night quilting frolic at Kakiat. "Often in the still twi- 
light the low sound of his oars is heard, though neither he nor his 
boat is ever seen." Another phantom that haunts the Tappan Zee is 
the "Storm Ship," a marvellous boat that fled past the astonished 
burghers at New Amsterdam without stopping — a flagrant violation of 
the customs regulation, which caused those worthy officials to fire 
several ineffectual shots at her. 

Across the river from Irvington is Piermont, and 2 M. 
to the southwest of Piermont is the village of Tappan, where 
Maj. Andre was executed Oct. 2, 1780. Lyndehurst, with its 
lofty tower, the home of Helen Gould Sheppard, the philan- 
thropist, a daughter of Jay Gould, is passed on the right just 
before reaching Tarrytown. 

24y 2 M. TARRYTOWN, Pop. 5,807. (Train 51 passes 
9:08; No. 3, 9:27; No. 41, 1:41; No. 25, 3:23; No. 19, 6:13. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:40; No. 26, 9:00; No. 16, 3:18; No. 
22, 4:43.) Situated on a sloping hill that rises to a consider- 
able height above the Tappan Zee, historic Tarrytown stands 
on the site of an Indian village, Alipoonk (place of elms), 
burned by the Dutch in 1644. Irving explains that the house- 
wives of the countrvside gave the town its name because their 



20 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



husbands were inclined to linger at the village tavern, but 
literal minded historians think it was more likely that the 
name came from Tarwen dorp or Tarwetown, "wheat town." 
There were perhaps a dozen Dutch families here in 1680 when 
Frederick Philipse acquired title to Philipse Manor, several 
thousand acres, in what is now Westchester county. Just 




Washington Irving 
Washington Irving (1783-1859) was intended for a legal profession, but although 
called to the bar preferred to amuse himself with literary ventures. The first of 
these, with the exception of the satirical miscellany, "Salmagundi," was the de- 
lightful "Knickerbocker History of New York," wherein the pedantry of loral 
antiquaries is laughed at, and the solidDutch burgher established as a definite 
comedy type. When the commercial house established by his father and run by his 

brother began to ,go under in 1815, Irving went to England to look into the 
affairs of the Liverpool house, and as it was soon necessary to declare bankn ptcy, 
his misfortune forced him to write for his living. Returning to America in !832 
after 17 years' absence, he found his name a household word. The only interruption 
to his literary career was the four years (1842-1846) he spent as ambassador to 

Spain. For the rest, he passed some littletime travelling, but in the main kept re- 
treat at "Sunnyside," where he died, Nov. 28, 1859. 



above Tarrytown is the valley of the Pocantico creek, the 
mouth of which is marked by the projection of Kingsland 
Point. 

This is the "Sleepy Hollow" of Irving's legend, where Ichabod 
Crane, the long, thin school-master, whose conspicuous bones clattered 
at any mention of ghosts, encountered the Headless Horseman pound- 
ing by night through the little Dutch village. It was after a quilting 
bee at Farmer Van Tassel's, where his daughter Katrina and what 
would come with her in the shape of fat farm-lands and well-stocked 
barns, aroused Ichabod's affections to the boiling point. He had a 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



21 



rival, however, "Brom Bones," a young black-headed sprig, who 
watched Ichabod's advances uneasily. After the party Ichabod 
mounted his old horse, Gunpowder, as bony as he, but no sooner was 
he well under way than he heard hoof beats on the road behind him 
and saw, glimmering in the dark, a white headless figure on horseback, 
carrying in its arms a round object like a head. . . . Never before or 
since was there such a chase in Sleepy Hollow. Perhaps the hapless 
school-teacher might have escaped, had not the Huntsman, just as 
they reached the Sleepy Hollow bridge, hurled his head square at his 
victim. The next morning no Ichabod, only a pumpkin lying on the 
road by the bridge, where the hoofmarks ceased. He had completely 
disappeared. Some weeks later Brom Bones led Katrina to the altar. 

Through this valley, we get a glimpse of the site where 
Philipse erected, partly of brick brought from Holland, a 
manor house,* a mill,* and a church,* all of which are still 
standing. 

"There is probably no other locality in America, taking into ac- 
count history, tradition, the old church, the manor house, and the 
mill, which so entirely conserves the form and spirit of Dutch civiliza- 
tion in the New World. . . . This group of buildings ranks in historic 









$*®m 








\- Jy 


"?> 








gSm 


•*3a8 


ill*.- 




Jts- *"C * i 


' 


Ct 










&/ ^tiftK 


wmM 


Kfi 4 


(ft* 




IP4 






Pap^^l^lfl 








Hwl^l 






Sw*^' 






SfifeslH 










HclH "^sasjs 




Wm 






sit 










all > 


n&o 








































•y 




/ 




&/M 












lift 






..IjaB 




















'>£& 












W *^Sfe * 




$a& ih 




^ 


















3Bfe , 


-•*<! 





















Old Dutch Church (Built About 1686) at Tarrytown, N. Y. 
Irving says: "The sequestered situation of the church seems always to have 
made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on a knoll, surrounded by 
locust trees and lofty elms, from among which its white-washed walls shine modestly 
forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement." The church 
is still standing. 



22 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



interest if not in historic importance with Faneuil Hall, Independence 
Hall, the ruined church tower at Jamestown, the old gateway at St. 
Augustine, and the Spanish cabildo on Jackson Square in New Orleans. 
And the time will come when pilgrimages will be made to this an- 
cient beautiful home of some of those ideals and habits of life which 
have given form and structure to American civilization." — Hamilton 
Wright Mabie. 

During the War of Independence, Tarrytown was the 
scene of numerous conflicts between the "cowboys" and "skin- 
ners," bands of unorganized partisans who carried on a kind 
of guerilla warfare, the former acting in the interest of the 
colonists, and the latter in that of the king. On the old post 
road on Sept. 24, 1780, Maj. Andre was captured by three 
Continentals, John Paulding, David Williams, and Isaac van 
Wart. The spot where Andre was captured is now marked 
with a monument— a marble shaft surmounted by a statue of 
a Continental soldier. 

Tarrytown lies principally along either side of a broad and wind- 
ing highway, laid out in 1723, from N. Y. C. to Albany. It was called 
the King's Highway till the War of Independence, then called Albany 
Post Road, and the section of it in Tarrytown is known now as 




Old Mill at Tarrytown Built in 1686 
The Manor House, the Old Church and the Mill were erected by Frederick 
Philipse, the lord of several thousand acres, in what is now Westchester County. 
The mill, much dilapidated, still exists. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 23 

Broadway. The delights of traveling in the days when the road was 
first laid out are suggested in the following description: "The coach 
was without springs, and the seats were hard, and often backless. 
The horses were jaded and worn, the roads were rough with boulders 
and stumps of trees, or furrowed with ruts and quagmires. The 
journey was usually begun at 3 o'clock in the morning, and after 
18 hours of jogging over the rough roads the weary traveler was 
put down at a country inn whose bed and board were such as to 
win little praise. Long before daybreak the next morning a blast 
from the driver's horn summoned him to the renewal of his journey. 
If the coach stuck fast in a mire, as it often did, the passengers must 
alight and help lift it out." 

Many of the stirring incidents of Fenimore Cooper's novel, 
The Spy, occurred in this neighborhood, and the town is par- 
ticularly described in The Sketch Book of Washington Irv- 
ing, who was for many years the warden of the old church 
and is buried in the old Sleepy Hollow burying ground. 

With Cooper and Washington Irving (1783-1859) American litera- 
ture first began to exist for the world outside our own boundaries. 
The Knickerbocker History of New York, in which the Dutch founders 
were satirized, was practically the first American book to win appre- 
ciation abroad. This and later books "created the legend of the 
Hudson, and Irving alone has linked his memory locally with his 
country so that it hangs over the landscape and blends with it for- 
ever." 

Harvey Birch, the hero of The Spy, is a portrait from the life of 
a revolutionary patriot who appears in the book as a peddler with a 
keen eye to trade as well as to the movements of the enemy. One 
of the best known incidents in the book is that in which Harvey, by 
a clever stratagem, assists Capt. Wharton to escape. James Feni- 
more Cooper (1789-1851) was born at Burlington, N. J., but was 
reared in the wild country around Otsego Lake, in central N. Y., on 
the yet unsettled estates of his father. It was here he learned the 
backwoods lore, which in combination with his romantic genius, made 
him one of the most popular of authors. 

Among the literary residents of Tarrytown have been 
Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth, well known to a previous gen- 
eration for her romantic novels, John Kendrick Bangs, the 
humorist, and Hamilton Wright Mabie, editor and essayist. 
Carl Schurz (1829-1906) is buried here in the Sleepy Hollow 
churchyard. Tarrytown is the trading center of a prosperous 
agricultural region; it also has about 100 manufacturing es- 
tablishments, with a large output. Just north of Kingsland 
Point (seen at the left, on the east bank of the river), the seat 
of William Rockefeller comes into view on the right, and 
behind it, among the hills, is the estate of his brother, John 
D. Rockefeller. 

John D. Rockefeller was born in 1839 at Richford, Tioga Co., 
N. Y., but his family moved to Cleveland while he was still a boy, 
and his career was begun there. In 1858 he went into the produce 



24 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

commission business, and 4 years later his company invested in an 
oil refinery. Mr. Rockefeller kept constantly adding to his influence 
and possessions in this field until by 1872 the Standard Oil Co. was or- 
ganized with him as president, and a practical control of oil production 
in America was secured. This was the first great American "trust." 
Mr. Rockefeller himself retired from active business in 1895. While 
his wealth is enormous, his benefactions have been on an equal scale, 
comprising gifts to the Baptist Church, the founding of educational 
institutions and the supporting of those already existent. Scientific 
research in medical fields has been a particular object of his gen- 
erosity. 

Mr. Rockefeller's country estate is called "Kijkuit," meaning look- 
out — a name given by the early Dutch settlers to the beautiful hill on 
which it stands, and which, rising to a height of 500 ft., gives a lovely 
view up and down the Hudson, across to the distant mountain ridges 
of N. J., and inland over Westchester County. The house and gar- 
dens are famous not only for their splendour, but for the priceless 
works of art they contain. Among the treasures which have been 
worked in as details of the landscape gardening is a fountain which 
for years has been considered unrivalled by experts. The huge basin, 
20 ft. 8 in. in diameter, was cut from a single block of granite weigh- 
ing 50 tons and brought on the deck of a schooner from an island 
on the Maine coast to the dock at Tarrytown. The heroic figure at 
the top represents Neptune, and the figures below symbolize the 
Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. 

In the "morning garden" at the rear of the house is a bronze 
Victory (a facsimile of the Pompeiian Victory at Naples), which 
stands on a marble column with a Byzantine capital brought from 
Greece. The 13th century relief set in the wall of the pergola at 
the left came from a church in Venice. 

Descending a flight of steps to the westward, one comes upon the 
Aphrodite temple. The style of this is Graeco-Roman, with columns 
of marble supporting a dome decorated after the fashion of the portico 
niches in the Massimi palace in Rome, which was designed in the 
16th century by Baldassare Peruzzi. Under a roof of copper and 
bronze, on a high pedestal, stands "Aphrodite," resembling the Venus 
de Medici, but so superior to her in line and proportion that many 
critics believe it to be a Praxitilean original from which the Venus 
de Medici was clumsily copied. This is the greatest art-treasure in 
the garden. 

30 M. OSSINING, Pop. 10,739. (Train 5/ passes 9:15; 
No. 3, 9:34; No. 41, 1:48; No. 25, 3:30; No. 19, 6:21. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 8:34; No. 26, 8:54; No. 16, 3:11; No. 22, 
4:36.) Ossining was first settled in 1700, when it was part of 
Philipse Manor. It was originally called Sing Sing, taking its 
name from the Sin Sinck Indians, but in 1901 the name was 
changed to Ossining, on account of its association with the 
Sing Sing prison, which can be seen to the left near the water's 
edge. The prison is a low white-marble building, built in 
1826. Ossining has a public library, several private schools, 
the Roman Catholic Foreign Missionary Seminary of America, 
and a soldiers' monument. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 25 

Passing the Croton aqueduct (on the right), which is car- 
ried over a stone arch with an 80-foot span, the train crosses 
the mouth of the Croton River and intersects Croton Point. 
It was at the extremity of this peninsula that the British 
sloop-of-war "Vulture" anchored when she brought Andre to 
visit Benedict Arnold at West Point. Six miles up the Croton 
River is the Croton Reservoir, which supplies a large share 
of N. Y. City's water. Across the river is Haverstraw Bay. 

At the north end of Haverstraw Bay, on the west bank, is Stony- 
Point Lighthouse, the site of a fort which was the scene of one of 
the most daring exploits of the Revolutionary War. Gen. Anthony 
Wayne (1745-1796) had been forced, through political necessity, to 
relinquish his regular command, and on the recommendation of 
Washington, he organized a new Light Infantry Corps, with which 
on the night of July 15. 1779, he stormed the fort and recaptured it 
from the British at the point of the bayonet. This well-planned 
enterprise aroused the greatest enthusiasm through the country, and 
won for him the popular name of "Mad Anthony." Later, in war 
with the Indians on the frontier, Gen. Wayne further distinguished 
himself. 

At this point is the greatest width (4 M.) in the river's 
course. Shortly before reaching Peekskill we pass Ver- 
planck's Point (on the left), near which the "Half Moon" 
dropped anchor, Sept. 14, 1609. 

40^ M. PEEKSKILL, Pop. 15,868. (Train 51 passes 
9:36; No. 3, 9:55; No. 41, 2:09; No. 25, 3:50; No. /o, 6:43. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 8:13; No. 26, 8:33; No. 16, 2:47; No. 
22, 4:14.) Peekskill means Peek's creek, and was named from 
the Dutch mariner, Jans Peek, who established a trading post 
here in 1760. It will be noticed that the Hudson turns ab- 
ruptly to the left at this point, while the creek branches off to 
the right. According to tradition, the adventurous Jans, who 
had been voyaging up the Hudson, became confused and 
turned to the right, following the creek with the idea that it 
was the main river, until his boat ran aground. As a result 
of this accident he chose the spot to set up a trading post. 
During the latter part of the Revolutionary War Peekskill 
was an important post of the Continental Army; and in Sept. 
1777, the village was sacked and burned by the British. To 
the north of Peekskill are Manito Mts., where the N. Y. Na- 
tional Guard has its summer encampment on a high cliff over- 
looking the river. The summer home of Henry Ward Beecher 
was in Peekskill, and ex-Senator Chauncey M. Depew was 
born here. 

Peekskill on the east side of the Hudson, and Dunder- 
berg Mt. (865 ft.) on the west, stand at the lower gate of the 



26 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



Highlands, so named from the steeply rising hills which bor- 
der both sides of the river for the next 16 M. At the foot 
of Dunderberg Mt. is Kidd's Point, one of the numerous places 
where the notorious pirate is supposed to have concealed 
treasure. 

Our train passes too close to the hills on the east bank 
to give a perspective, but on the west, where the Highlands 
are visible across the Hudson, the outlook is very beautiful. 
This part of the Hudson, often compared to the Rhine, has 
always been a source of artistic and poetic inspiration. 




Peekskill Landing — About 1815 



Close to Dunderberg Mt. the river takes a sharp turn to 
the left, and just beyond the mountain can be seen Iona Island 
(near the west bank), now occupied by the U. S. Government 
as a naval arsenal and supply depot. Between the island and 
the eastern shore the river is so narrow that this stretch is 
spoken of by boatmen as "The Race." A short distance far- 
ther on the west bank is Bear Mt. Park, originally the gift 
of Mrs. E. H. Harriman, which has been set aside by the 
Interstate Palisade Park Commissioners as a vacation resort 
for the poor. Our train presently passes by tunnel under the 
mountain known as "Anthony's Nose" (900 ft.), so named, ac- 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 27 

cording to Diedrich Knickerbocker, from the "refulgent nose" 
of Anthony van Corlear, Peter Stuyvesant's trumpeter. 
Across the river is visible the mouth of Poplopen creek, on 
the north side, Ft. Clinton. 

These two forts were involved in the important maneuvers of 
1777, when the British, under Sir Henry Clinton, executed a brilliant 
enterprise northward up the Hudson; they broke through the chains 
which the Americans had stretched across the river in the hope of 
checking the advance of British warships, captured Ft. Clinton and 
Ft. Montgomery and destroyed the fleets which the Americans had 
been forming on the river. 

Three M. farther (on the right) is Sugar Loaf Mt. (765 
ft.), noteworthy as the place from which Benedict Arnold, 
whose headquarters were in the Beverley Robinson House, 
near the south base of the mountain, made his escape to the 
British man-of J war "Vulture" (1780) after receiving news 
of Andre's capture. On the west shore near Highland Falls 
stands the residence of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, standing 
somewhat back from the river and partly hidden by trees. 

John Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) was born in Hartford, Conn., 
a son of Junius S. Morgan, who was a partner of George Peabody 
and the founder of the house of J. S. Morgan & Co. in London. 
After his university training at Gottingen, he began his career in the 
financial world, and by 1895, as the head of J. P. Morgan & Co., was 
the greatest American financier. His banking house became one of the 
most powerful in the world, carrying through the formation of the 
U. S. Steel Corporation, harmonizing the coal and railway interests 
of Pennsylvania, purchasing the Leyland line of Atlantic steamships 
and other British lines in 1902, effecting an Atlantic shipping combine, 
reorganizing many large railways, and in 1895 supplying the U. S. 
government with $62,000,000 in gold to float a bond issue and re- 
store the treasury surplus of $100,000,000. Mr. Pierpont Morgan 
was a prominent member of the Episcopal church, a keen yachtsman, 
a generous patron of charitable and educational institutions, and a 
notable art and book collector. As president of the Metropolitan 
Museum he gave or loaned to it many rare and beautiful pictures, 
statues, and art objects of all kinds. A memorial tablet was recently 
unveiled in his honour at the museum. 

Buttermilk Falls (100 ft.) are visible on the west bank 
after a heavy rain ; the buildings on the bluff above belong 
to Lady Cliff, a school for girls. 

49 M. WEST POINT (Garrison). (Train 51 passes 
9:46; No. 3, 10:04; No. 41, 2:19; No. 25, 4:00; No. 19, 6:55. 
Eastbound:'No. 6 passes 8:01 ; No. 26, 8:20; No. 16, 2:34; No. 
22, 4:00.) Across the river from Garrison, the imposing build- 
ings of West Point, the "Gibraltar of the Hudson," come into 
view. The name "West Point" properly belongs to the vil- 
lage located here, but in ordinary usage it refers to the U. S. 



28 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



Military Academy,* America's training school for officers, 
which at the present time has about 1,000 cadets. 

The academy furnishes for those who wish to become army 
officers a splendid education of a standard equal to the best colleges 
and without cost to the student. Each cadet is paid $1,028.20 a year, 
an amount which, with proper economy, is sufficient for his support. 
West Point, therefore, offers an excellent opportunity for those who 
can meet the requirements and are capable of successfully undergoing 
the mental and physical discipline of the school. Each senator and 
congressman is entitled to nominate two candidates, who are ap- 
pointed as cadets by the Secretary of War after passing the pre- 
scribed examination. There are also 82 appointments at large, and 
the law of 1916 authorized the president to appoint cadets to the 
academy from among the enlisted of the Regular Army and Na- 
tional Guard, though not more than 180 at any one time. This law 
was passed with the idea of introducing a greater degree of democracy 
into army life. Candidates for admission must be between 17 and 
22 years, unmarried, free from physical infirmity and capable of 
passing a somewhat rigorous examination in high school or prepara- 




West Point from an Aeroplane 



Photo Brown Bros. 



tory school subjects. The course of instruction, which requires three 
years, is largely mathematical and professional. From about the 
middle of June to the end of August the cadets live in camp, engaged 
only in military duties and receiving military instruction. In gen- 
eral the education and discipline are so excellent that the business 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 29 

world is always ready with its high pecuniary rewards to tempt men 
away from their military vocation. The result is that graduates 
frequently resign their commissions, and the army loses what is 
gained by the world of affairs. 

The academy occupies a commanding- position on a pla- 
teau 150 ft. above the river. As we approach, the power house 
is in the foreground, with the riding school, a massive build- 
ing, just beyond, while the square tower of the Administra- 
tion Building dominates the scene on the level of the parade 
ground above. West Point was first occupied as a military 
post during the Revolutionary War. In Jan. 1778, a huge 
chain, part of which is still preserved on the parade ground, 
was stretched across the river in the hope of blocking the 
progress of the British men-of-war, and a series of fortifica- 
tions , planned by the great Polish soldier, Kosciusko, were 
erected on the site of the present academy. 

Thaddeus Kosciusko (1746-1817) had a romantic and pic- 
turesque career. 

An intended elopement with Ludwika, daughter of the Grand 
Hetman, Sosnowski of Sosnowica, was discovered by the Hetman's 
retainers. In the fight that followed, Kosciusko was badly wounded 
and flung from the house. Shortly afterwards he left for America, 
where, as he had been well grounded in military science, Washing- 
ton soon promoted him to the rank of colonel of artillery and made 
him his adjutant. Kosciusko especially distinguished himself in the 
operations about N. Y. C. and at Yorktown, and Congress conferred 
upon him a number of substantial rewards. He returned to his 
native land to participate in the gallant but unsuccessful effort to free 
Poland (1794), and is now celebrated among the Poles as one of their 
greatest heroes. 

At West Point were the fortifications that Benedict Ar- 
nold, their commander in 1780, agreed to betray into British 
hands. 

Benedict Arnold^ (1741-1801) was, before his disgrace, perhaps 
the most brilliant officer and one of the most honored in the Ameri- 
can army. It is true that shortly before he took command at West 
Point a court martial had directed Washington to reprimand him for 
two trivial offenses, but Washington couched the reprimand in words 
that were almost praise. The court martial had been ordered by 
Congress, against which Arnold had expressed his indignation for 
what he regarded as its mistaken policies in respect to the war. 
This conflict with Congress, together with certain vexatious circum- 
stances, rising out of his command in Philadelphia — he had gone 
heavily into debt — led him into a secret correspondence with the 
British general, Sir Henry Clinton, and he asked for the assignment 
to West Point for the very purpose of betraying this strategic post 
into the hands of the British. 

In order to perfect the details of the plot, Clinton's adjutant- 
general, Maj. John Andre, met him near Stony Point on the night 
of the 21st of Sept. In the meantime, the man-of-war, "Vulture," 



30 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



upon which Andre had arrived, was forced to move farther down- 
stream to avoid an impromptu bombardment by American patriots. 
As a result Andre had to start back to N. Y. by land. He bore a 
pass issued by Arnold, but he made the fatal mistake of changing 
to civilian clothes. Technically, therefore, he was a spy. At Tarry- 
town he was challenged by three Continentals; he offered them a 
purse of gold, a valuable watch, or anything they might name if they 
would permit him to proceed to N. Y. C. His offers were rejected, 
and the incriminating papers were found in his boots. He was carried 
before the commanding officer of the -lines, who, not suspecting his 
superior could be involved, notified Arnold. The latter was at break- 
fast with Washington's aides; pretending he had an immediate call 



Maj. Andre 
The picture was drawn by Andre 
without the aid of a looking-glass on 
the morning of the day fixed for his 
execution. A respite of twenty-four 
hours was, however, given. To Maj. 
Tomlinson, then acting as officer of the 
guard, Andre presented the sketch. 



JiPi 



I 



: :% >i 



%^if^W 




from across the river, he jumped from the table, told his wife enough 
to cause her the greatest consternation, mounted a horse and rode 
to a barge which took him to the "Vulture." In spite of the protest 
and entreaties of Sir Henry Clinton and the threats of Arnold, the 
unfortunate Andre, against whose character no suspicion was ever 
uttered, was hanged at Tappan, Oct. 2, 1780. 

Maj. Andre was 29 years old at the time, and his fate aroused 
universal sympathy. It is said that Washington himself, whom some 
historians censure because he did not save Andre, wept upon hearing 
the circumstances of his death, but under military law his execution 
was inevitable. Arnold, however, escaped the punishment he so 
richly merited. He was commissioned brigadier-general in the British 
army and received £6,315 for his property losses. He was employed 
in several operations during the remaining period of the war, but 
later when he went to England he met with neglect and scorn that 
probably hastened his death. In 1821 Andre's remains were taken to 
England and interred there; at the same time a memorial was erected 
in Westminster Abbey. 

Some time later Washing-ton recommended West Point 
to Congress as a site for a military school, but it was not until 
1802 that the academy was established. There are many 
notable memorials of early days and distinguished soldiers 
here. 

By far the greater number of America's distinguished generals 
and soldiers since the War of Independence have been graduates of 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



31 



West Point. These include U. S. Grant, Philip Henry Sheridan, 
William Sherman, George P. McClellan, Thomas J. (Stonewall) 
Jackson (Confederate), Robert E. Lee (Confederate) and Richard 
Henry Anderson (Confederate). Grant was appointed to West Point 
in 1839; he was a good horseman and good in mathematics, but 
graduated in 21st place in a class of 39. Sherman, on the other hand, 
stood near the head of his class when he graduated in 1839. Lee 
was commissioned in the engineering corps upon his graduation in 
1829. The most notable commanding officers in the American army 
during the World War, including, of course, Gen. Pershing, were 
West Point graduates; the most conspicuous exception, perhaps, was 
Maj.-Gen. Leonard Wood, who began his career as a surgeon. 

Above the cliff and towards the north and east of the 
plain is Fort Clinton ; on its east front stands a monument 
erected in 1828 by the Corps of Cadets to Kosciusko, while 




West Point and the Highlands, 1868 
This picture, published shortly after the Civil War, gives a good idea of the 
dress and uniform of the period, as well as a typical battery. Note the lady's hoop 
skirt and the bearded officer to whom she is speaking. The gun is one of the old 
muzzle-loaders, and there is a mortar in the foreground. 

"Flirtation Walk," on the river side of the academy, leads to 
Kosciusko Garden, so named because it was much frequented 
by the Polish hero. On the parade ground is Victory Monu- 
ment (78 ft. high), erected in 1874 as a Civil War memorial. 
The library — one of the finest military libraries in existence — 



32 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

contains interesting memorials by Saint Gaudens to J. McNeil 
Whistler and Edgar Allan Poe, both of whom were cadets at 
the academy and both of whom were virtually expelled. 

Poe's neurotic temperament had led him into a number of es- 
capades, but he gave evidence of improvement after he enlisted in 
the American Army at Boston in 1827. He served two years, and 
was promoted sergeant-major. He was then 20 years old, and on 
the basis of his army record, his uncle, John Allan, obtained for him 
an appointment to West Point. As a student he showed considerable 
facility for mathematics, but he incurred the displeasure of his su- 
periors by neglect of duty, and was expelled in 1830, one year after 
he had been admitted. His temperament was of course unsuited to 
West Point discipline. The military discipline of the academy was 
equally odious to Whistler, the painter (1834-1903), who was dis- 
missed and transferred to the United States coast survey. In his 
third year Whistler failed in chemistry. Col. Larned, one of his in- 
structors, gives the incident thus — "Whistler was called up for ex- 
amination in the subject of chemistry, which also covered the studies 
of mineralogy and geology, and given silicon to discuss. He began: 
T am required to discuss the subject of silicon. Silicon is a gas.' 
'That will do, Mr. Whistler,' and he retired quickly to private life. 
Whistler later said: 'Had silicon been a gas, I would have been a 
major-general.' " 

High above the academy on Mount Independence (490 
feet) still stands the ruins of old Ft. Putnam,* one of the 
original fortifications, from which a magnificent view can be 
obtained of the academy, the river, and the surrounding coun- 
try. Our route now lies across a peninsula called Constitution 
Island, which is the site of a preparatory school for West 
Point. 

For many years the Island was the home of the Misses Anna 
and Susan Warner, authors of "The Wide, Wide World," and other 
stories popular with children. Through the generosity of Miss 
Susan Warner, who survived her sister, and Mrs. Russell Sage, the 
island was presented to the government a few years ago, and is now 
part of West Point. 

We pass on the west bank Crow's Nest Mt. (1,396 ft.) 
associated with Joseph Rodman Drake's fanciful poem, The 
Culprit Fay. Two M. farther we leave the Highlands through 
the "Golden Gate," where Storm King Mt. rises to a height 
of 1,340 ft. on the west side of the Hudson, and Breakneck 
Mt. to a height of 1,365 ft. on the other. Near Storm King 
the tunnel of the great new Catskill aqueduct, carrying water 
to N. Y. C, passes under the Hudson at a depth of 1,100 ft.— 
a depth made necessary to reach solid rock at the bottom. 

N. Y. City's Catskill Mt. water supply system is the greatest of 
waterworks, modern or ancient. Three-quarters of the project has 
been completed. The waters of the Esopus Creek in the Catskills 
are stored in the Ashokan reservoir, an artificial lake twelve miles 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 33 

long, situated about 14 miles west of the Hudson River at Kingston. 
From this reservoir the aqueduct extends 92 M. to the city's 
northern boundary, and supplies about 375,000,000 gallons daily. 
From the Croton watershed New York receives a supply almost 
as large — 336,000,000 gallons daily. Construction on the Catskill 
supplv system was begun in 1907, and the total cost will be about 
$177,000,000. 

The river now widens and turns to the west ; on the 
further bank is Cornwall, near which is the estate of the late 
E. P. Roe, the writer, and "Idlewild," the former home of N. 
P. Willis, likewise a writer of importance in his day. The 
home of Lyman Abbott, editor of the Outlook is also here. 
The proprietor of Bannerman's Island, which we now pass, 
is a dealer in obsolete war material ; he has built on the island 
a number of castle-like store-houses of old paving stones taken 
from the streets of New York. 

58 M. BEACON, Pop. 10,996 & NEWBURGH, Pop. 
30,366. (Train 5/ passes 9 :56 ; No. 3, 10:17; No. 41, 2 :29 ; No. 
25, 4:10; No. /p, 7:06. Eastbound : No. 6 passes 7:50; No. 26, 
8:09; No. 16, 2:22; No. 22, 3:48.) Beacon was incorporated 
in May, 1913, by merging- the villages of Matteawan and 
Fishkill Landing, the latter of which lay closer to the river. 
The first settlement in the township was made in 1690. Dur- 
ing the Revolutionary War it was an important military post 
for the Northern Continental Army. At Fishkill Landing, on 
May 13, 1783, Gen. Knox organized the Society of the Cin- 
cinnati. 

The Society of the Cincinnati was an organization of army 
officers who had served in the Revolutionary War. Besides the gen- 
eral society of which Washington was president, another was organ- 
ized for each state. (The name is in reference to Cincinnatus, the 
Roman patriot who left the plough to serve his country.) Member- 
ship was limited to officers, native or foreign, of the Continental 
army who had either served with honour for three years or had been 
honorably discharged for disability, and to their descendants. 

Because it included several European nobles, such as Lafayette 
and Steuben, and because it was founded on the principle of heredity, 
the new society was denounced as the beginning of an aristocracy, 
and therefore a menace, by such Revolutionary leaders as Franklin, 
Adams, and Jefferson, who were ineligible for membership because 
they had not been in the army. There was perhaps a real danger 
that it might become a military hierarchy which would appropriate 
the important offices of the new republic. At any rate, several states 
adopted resolutions against it and so great was the antagonism that 
at the first general meeting in 1784 Washington persuaded the mem- 
bers to abolish the hereditary feature. In spite of this concession, 
the excitement did not die, and in 1789 the Tammany Society was 
founded in N. Y. C. in opposition to the Cincinnati, and as a body 



34 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



wherein "true equality" should govern. This was the origin of Tam- 
many Hall, which became conspicuous in N. Y. politics. 

Alexander Hamilton succeeded Washington as president, but by 
1824 most of the state branches of the Cincinnati and the general so- 
ciety itself were dead or dying. For a long time little was left but 
a traditional dinner held each year in N. Y. C. In 1893 the general 
society made an effort to revive the state organizations, with some 
little success. The hereditary feature has been restored and the liv- 
ing members number about 980. The motto is -"Omnia relinquit 
servare rem publicam." (He abandons everything to serve the re- 
public.) 

Back of Matteawan are seen Beacon Mts., their name 
recalling Revolutionary days when beacon fires were lighted 
as signals on their summits. The summit of the highest of the 
group, Beacon Hill* (1,635 ft.) can now be. reached by means 
of a cable railway, making possible a very pleasant excursion. 




Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh 
An early picture showing American soldiers on guard at the headquarters of 
Gen. Washington at Newburgh. The house itself was built about 1760 and was 
occupied by Washington from the spring of 1782 to August, 1783. It is now open 
to the public as a museum. 

The Matteawan State Hospital for the Insane is at Beacon 
on the north side of Fishkill Creek. Beacon's products in- 
clude hats, silks, woolens, rubber goods, engines, brick and 
tile ; the total annual value of manufactures is about $4,500,000. 
Four miles to the northwest on Fishkill Creek is the village 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 35 

of Fishkill, notable for two quaint old churches, both still 
standing, and interesting enough to repay a visit: the First 
Dutch Reformed (17.31), in which the New York Provincial 
Congress met in Aug. and Sept., 1776, and Trinity (1769). 

After Congress moved elsewhere, Trinity was used as a hospital, 
and the Dutch church, being constructed of stone, was converted into 
a prison. Its most famous prisoner was Enoch Crosby (who served 
as the original for Cooper's hero in The Spy), a patriot who twice 
escaped with the help of the Committee of Safety, the only persons 
who knew his true character. 

Across the river Newburgh is visible rising above the 
Hudson. From the Spring of 1782 to Aug. 1783 Washington 
made his headquarters in the Jonathan Hasbrouck house* (to 
the south of the city), built between 1750 and 1770. The 
house, a one story stone building with a timber roof, has 
been purchased by the State of N. Y. and is open to visitors. 
It contains many interesting Revolutionary weapons, docu- 
ments and other relics. Here in May, 1782, Washington 
wrote his famous letter of rebuke to Lewis Nicola, who had 
written in behalf of a coterie of officers suggesting that he 
assume the title of king. 

Washington's reply was peremptory and indignant. They could 
not have found, he said, "a person to whom their schemes were more 
disagreeable," and charged them, "if you have any regard for your- 
self or posterity, or respect for me, to banish these thoughts from 
your mind, and never communicate, as from yourself or any one else, 
a sentiment of like nature." Here also he made his reply to the so- 
called Newburgh addresses written by John Armstrong and calling 
for action on the part of the army to redress its grievances. 

Newburgh was still his headquarters when Washington 
by the force of his influence secured the quiet disbandment 
of the Continental Army at the close of the war. Upon the 
occasion of the centennial celebration (1883) of this event, 
a monument called the Tower of Victory, 53 ft. high with a 
statue of Washington, was erected. 

Newburgh is the center of a rich agricultural region, but 
it is a manufacturing center as well; its output comprises 
machine shop products, plaster, cotton, woolen and silk goods, 
felt hats, furniture, flour, lumber and cigars. Above New- 
burgh can be seen the lighthouse (on the west bank) called 
the Devil's Danskammer, or Devil's Dance Hall, recalling the 
time when Henry Hudson and his crew landed here to wit- 
ness an Indian pow-wow. The Dutch, who were considerably 
startled by the affair, thought that it could be nothing less 
than a diabolical dance ; hence the name. 

73 M. POUGHKEEPSIE, Pop. 35,000. (Train 51 



36 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



passes 10:14; No. 3, 10:38; No. 47, 2:48; No. 25, 4:27 ; No. 
/p, 7:24. Eastbound : No. (5 passes 7:32; No. ^d, 7:51; No. 
16, 2:02; No. <?2, 3:29.) Poughkeepsie was the Apokeepsing 
of the Indians — "the pleasant and safe harbour" made by the 
rocky bluffs projecting into the river, where canoes were shel- 
tered from wind and wave. The city is built partly on ter- 
races rising 200 ft. above the river, and partly on the level 
plateau above. Poughkeepsie was settled by the Dutch in 
1698. The most momentous event in Poughkeepsie's history 
and one of the most important in that of the whole Union, 
was the convention held here in 1788 at which the state of 
N. Y. decided to ratify the federal constitution. The decision 
was carried by three votes. 

The credit for bringing- N. Y. into the Union must go largely 
to Alexander Hamilton and his supporters, John Jay and Chancellor 
Robert R. Livingston. Of the three N. Y. delegates to the federal 
convention, Hamilton was the only one to sign its report, and when 



Robert Fulton's First Steamboat 
{From Fulton's own Sketch) 
On Sept. 1, 1807, the Albany "Ga- 
zette" announced that the "North River 
Steamboat [i.e., the "Clermont"] will 
leave Paulus's Hook [Jersey City] on 
Friday, the 4th of September, at 6 in 
the morning and arrive at Albany on 
Saturday at 6 in the afternoon." The 
New York Central train now takes only 
a few minutes more than three hours 
to make the trip. The same paper on 
Oct. 5, 1807, announced that "Mr. 
Fulton's new steamboat left New York 
against a strong tide, very rough wa- 
ter, and a violent gale from the north. 
She made headway against the most 
sanguine expectations, and without be- 
ing rocked by the waves." 




the state convention was called at Poughkeepsie, June 17, 1788, two- 
thirds of its members voted against the proposed U. S. constitution. 
The opposition was led by Gov. George Clinton and his party, known 
as the "Clintonians." Clinton, though he here fought bitterly the 
proposed new constitution and government, lived to be a Vice Presi- 
dent of the U. S. (He should not be confused with the DeWitt 
Clinton who later built the Erie Canal.) The eloquence of Hamilton, 
Jay and Livingston, however, coupled with the news that New 
Hampshire and Virginia had ratified, finally carried the day, and the 
N. Y. Convention gave its approval of the new Constitution by a 
vote of 30 to 27. 

Vassar College, the oldest women's college in America, 
and one of the most famous, occupies extensive grounds to 
the east of the city. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 37 

Vassar was founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar (1791-1868), an 
Englishman who had established in Poughkeepsie in 1801 a brewery 
from which he became rich. He got the idea of founding a woman's 
college from his niece, Lydia Booth, a school teacher. His total 
gifts to the institution amounted to about $800,000. His nephew, 
Matthew Vassar, Jr., became manager of the brewery after his uncle's 
death, and gave in all about $500,000 to the college. Vassar now has 
a campus and farm of about 800 acres, and possesses an endowment 
of $2,440,000. Its students number about 1,100. 

The Hudson near Poughkeepsie furnishes the course 
for the intercollegiate races in which American college crews, 
with the exception of Harvard and Yale (which row on the 
Thames at New London) have rowed practically every year 
since 1895. The river is spanned at this point by one of the 
largest cantilever bridges in the world. It is 2,260 ft. long 
and 200 ft. above the water, and is the only bridge over the 
Hudson south of Albany. 

It required 4 years to build the bridge, which was finished in 1889 
at a cost of $3,500,000. It connects New England directly with the 
coal fields of Pennsylvania. 

Poughkeepsie has more than 50 lines of manufacture, with 
products of a total annual value of $15,000,000, including mill 
supplies, clothing, cigars, candied fruit and preserves, cream 
separators, foundry products, knit goods, ivory buttons, and 
piano and organ players. 

Two miles beyond Poughkeepsie the red brick buildings 
of the Hudson River State Hospital are passed on the right, 
and presently our route skirts Hyde Park (79 M.) near which, 
to the north, can be seen the estate of Frederick W. Vander- 
bilt. There are many beautiful country-places in the district. 
A little beyond Hyde Park on the west bank of the river is 
"Slabsides," the cabin home of John Burroughs, the poet, 
philosopher, and widely known writer on natural history. 

John Burroughs was born in 1837 at Roxbury, N. Y., the fifth 
son of a farmer. His first books were bought with money he earned 
from tapping maple trees, boiling the sap and selling the sugar. 
One season, he tells us, he made twelve silver quarters, and has 
never been so proud since. Although he has lived much in the world 
and has travelled widely, the greater part of his time has been divided 
between Riverby, in the little town of West Park, N. Y., the famous 
"Slabsides," his cabin in the wooded hills back of the Hudson, and, 
since 1908, an old farm house which he has christened Woodchuck 
Lodge, y 2 M. from the Burroughs homestead in Roxbury. In his 
retreat at "Slabsides" he wrote some of his most intimate and ap- 
pealing studies of nature. 

Esopus Island is now passed, on the high left bank of 
which, near the water, stands the home of Alton B. Parker, 
Democratic candidate for the presidency against Roosevelt 



38 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

in 1904. We now pass the estates of D. Ogden Mills and 
W. B. Dinsmore, former president of the Adams Express 
Company (on the right). Esopns Lighthouse is on the west 
bank where the river curves sharply to the left. On the high 
ground on the east bank is the country home of the late Levi 
P. Morton. 

Levi P. Morton (1824-1920), American banker and politician, was 
born at Shoreham, Vt. After some years in business at Hanover, 
N. H., Boston and N. Y. C, he established in 1862 the banking house 
of L. P. Morton & Co. (dissolved in 1899), with a London branch. 
The American firm assisted in funding the national debt at the time 
of the resumption of specie payments, and the London house were 
fiscal agents of the U. S. government in 1873-1884, and as sucli re- 
ceived the $15,500,000 awarded by the Geneva Arbitration court in 
settlement of the "Alabama Claims" against Great Britain. In 1899 
Morton became president of the Morton Trust Co. of N. Y. C. He 
was a Republican representative in Congress from 1879 to 1881, 
U. S. minister to France (1881-1885), vice-president of the U. S. dur- 
ing the administration of Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893) and gov- 
ernor of N. Y. state (1895-1896) signing in that capacity the "Greater 
New York" bill and the liquor-tax measure known as the "Raines 
law." In 1896 he was a candidate for the presidential nomination in 
the Republican national convention. 

88 M. RHINECLIFF, Top. 1,300. (Train 51 passes at 
10:32; No. 3, 10:56; No. 41, 3:07; No. 25, 4:46; No. 10, 9:39. 
Eastbound : No. 6 passes 7 :13 ; No. 26, 7 :31 ; No. 16, 1 :37 ; No. 
22, 3:09.) Across the river from Rhinecliff is Kingston (Pop. 
26,688), most of which lies on a plateau 150 ft. above the river. 
Rondout, once a separate town, is now a part of the city of 
Kingston, the center of which lies 3 M. inland. To the north- 
west is the noble scenery of the Catskills, to the southwest are 
the Shawangunk Mts. and Lake Mohonk, and in the distance 
on our right (that is, on the Rhinecliff side) are the Berkshire 
Hills. 

Kingston is one of the oldest towns in the state. In 1658 
a stockade was built here by order of Gov. Peter Stuyvesant, 
and although the Dutch had built a fort here as early as 1614, 
it is from this event that the founding of the city is generally 
dated. The town suffered a number of murderous Indian 
attacks before it was taken over by the British in 1664. 

The early history of Kingston reached a climax during 
the Revolution, when the British under Sir John Yaughan 
sacked the town and burned the buildings Oct. 17, 1777. The 
"Senate House"* erected in 1676, was the meeting place of the 
first State Senate during the early months of 1777. At the 
time of the British occupation the interior was burnt but the 
walls were left standing. The building is now the property 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



39 



of the state and is used as a colonial museum. The present 
Court House, built in 1818, stands on the site of the old Court 
House, where New York's first governor, George Clinton, 
was inaugurated, and in which Chief Justice John Jay held 
the first term of the N. Y. Supreme Court in Sept. 1777. 

John Jay (1745-1829), son of Peter Jay, a successful N. Y. mer- 
chant, had a notable career. He was Chairman of the Commission 
which drafted the N. Y. State Constitution in 1777. In the same 
year he was made Chief Justice of the State. In negotiating peace 
with Great Britain (1783) he acted with Benjamin Franklin, John 
Adams, Jefferson and Henry Laurens, and he is credited with having 
been influential in obtaining favorable terms for the former colonies. 
In 1789 Washington appointed him chief justice of the U. S. Supreme 




The "Senate House" (1676), Kingston, N. Y. 
Erected in 1676 as a private residence, the "Senate House" was one of the 
few buildings left standing when the British sacked the town of Kingston in October, 
1777. It had been the meeting place of the first State Senate in the earlier part of that 
year. The house is now maintained as a colonial museum. 



Court, in which capacity he served for six years. In the meantime, 
1794, he negotiated the famous Jay Treaty with Great Britain, which 
averted a dangerous crisis in the relations between the two countries, 
and settled such questions as the withdrawal of British troops from 
the northwestern frontier, compensation for the seizure of American 



40 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



vessels during the Franco-British war of 1793, and the refusal of the 
British up to that time to enter into a commercial treaty with the 
U. S. From 1795 to 1798 he served as Governor of N. Y. Daniel 
Webster said: "When the spotless ermine of the judicial robe fell 
on John Jay, it touched nothing less spotless than itself." 

Less than a mile beyond Rhinecliff we pass "Ferncliff," 
the beautiful country-place of Vincent Astor, son of the late 
John Jacob Astor III, who lost his life in the "Titanic" dis- 
aster. The large white building on a hill nearby is the Astor 
squash court. 

John Jacob Astor III (1864-1912) was the son of William B. 
Astor II. The latter was the son of William B. Astor (1792-1875), 
known as "the landlord of New York," because of his extensive real 
estate holdings in New York City. He was the son of the founder of 
the Astor fortune, John Jacob Astor (1763-1828). The latter was born 
near Heidelberg, Germany, worked for a time in London, came to 
N. Y. C. and took up fur trading, in which he amassed an enormous 
fortune, the largest up to that time made by any American. 




Steps in the Development of the Steam-boat 

The top figure represents a boat of the 15th Century propelled by paddle wheels. 
Below is a steam tug, the design of Jonathan Hulls, who received a paten t on his 
invention from the British government in 1736. It appears that some time later, 
in 1802, Robert Fulton, who was then in England, actually rode in a tug of similar 
design built by William Symington. Fulton, however, was the first to construct 
a steam-boat in the modern sense of the term. The illustrations used above were 
taken from the Supplement to the Sixth Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 



Six miles above Rhinecliff we pass Anandale on the right, 
the former home of Gen. Richard Montgomery (b. 1736), who 
was killed Dec. 31, 1775, while conducting the American at- 
tack on Quebec. 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 41 

It is not always remembered that the Americans undertook an 
expedition against Quebec during the first year of the Revolution- 
ary War. Gen. Montgomery was joined near Quebec by Benedict 
Arnold, then a colonel, and they pushed on towards their objective 
with barely 800 men. The assault met a complete defeat; almost at 
the first discharge, Montgomery was killed, and many of his men 
were taken prisoners. In 1818 Mrs. Montgomery, then a gray-haired 
widow, sat alone on the porch of the house while the remains of 
Gen. Montgomery were brought down the Hudson on the steamer 
"Richmond" with great funeral pomp. A monument has been erected 
in St. Paul's Chapel, N. Y. C., where his remains were finally in- 
terred. General and Mrs. Montgomery, who was a daughter of Rob- 
ert R. Livingston, had been married only two years when he went 
away on his expedition. 

Just north of Tivoli (98 M.) is the site of the Manor 
House of the Livingston family, "Clermont," after which Rob- 
ert Fulton named his first steamboat. 

The Livingston Manor comprised the greater part of what are 
now Dutchess and Columbia Counties. The founder of the family 
was Robert Livingston (1654-1725) who was born at Ancrum, Scot- 
land, emigrated to America about 1673 and received these manorial 
grants in 1686. He was a member of the N. Y. Assembly for several 
terms. The Livingston Manor was involved in anti-rent troubles 
which began in the Rensselaer Manor. 

109 M. GREENDALE, Pop. 1,650. (Train 51 passes 
10:54; No. 3, 11:19; No. 41, 3:32; No. 25, 5:08; No. 19, 8:10. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 6:49; No. 26, 7:09; No. 16, 1:07; No. 
22, 2:44.) From Greendale a very fine view is obtained of the 
noble scenery of the Catskill Mountains. The village of Cat- 
skill (Pop. 4,461) across the river, was at one time the only 
point of entrance for visitors to the mountains — now reached 
chiefly by railway from Kingston. Catskill Station, however, 
is still a point of departure for this favorite summer resort. Tn 
clear weather it is possible to get a glimpse of the deep gorge 
of the Kaaterskill Cove (about one mile west of Catskill vil- 
lage) where Rip Winkle strayed into the mountains, discov- 
ered Hendrick Hudson playing at skittles, and, bewitched by 
the wine supplied by the ghostly sportsmen, slept for 20 years. 
On the high crest back of the station (about 10 M. from the 
river) the Mountain House (Alt. 2,225 ft.) and Kaaterskill 
House, famous old hotels, can be seen in clear weather. 

The Catskill Mts.,* a group possessing much charm and beauty, 
run parallel with the Hudson for about 15 miles, at a distance of from 
5 to 9 miles from the shore line, on the west bank; they cover an 
area of about 500 Sq. M. On the side visible from the train 
they rise steeply to a height of 2,000 to 3,000 feet though on the other 
sides the slopes are gradual. The highest summits are those of 
Slide Mt. (4,205 ft.) and Hunter Mt. (4,025 ft.). The summits of 
several of these mountains are reached by inclined railways that 



42 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



afford splendid views. A number of deep ravines known as "cloves," 
a word derived from the Dutch, have been cut into the mountains by 
streams. The name Catskill, formerly Kaatskill, is a word of Dutch 
origin, referring, it is said, to the catamounts, or wild cats, formerly 
found here. The Indians called the mountains "Onti Ora" or Mts. 
of the Sky. Washington Irving in his introduction to the story of 
Rip Van Winkle says, "Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson 
must remember the Kaatskill Mts. They are a dismembered branch 
of the great Appalachian family, and are seen away to the west of 
the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the 
surrounding country. Every change of season, every change of 
weather, indeed every hour of the day, produces some change in 
the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are re- 




Hudson, N. Y. (1835) 
Showing one of the early passenger trains on what is now the New York Central 
route. 



garded by all the good housewives far and near as perfect barometers. 
When the weather is fair and settled, they are clothed in blue and 
purple, and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky; but 
sometimes when the rest of the landscape is cloudless, they will 
gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last 
rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory." 

114 M. HUDSON, Pop. 11,745. (Train 31 passes 11 :00; 
No. ?, 11:26; No. 41, 3:37; No. 25, 5:14; No. 19, 8:16. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 6:44; No. 26, 7:04; No. 16, 1:02; No. 22, 
2:39.) Hudson, picturesquely situated on the slope of a hill 
and commanding' a fine view of the river and the Catskill Mts., 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 43 

was originally known as Claverack Landing, and for many 
years it was nothing more than a landing with two rude wharfs 
and two small storehouses, to which the farmers in the neigh- 
borhood brought their produce for shipment on the river. Late 
in 1783, the place was settled by an association of merchants 
and fishermen, mostly Quakers, from Rhode Island, Nantucket, 
and Martha's Vineyard. These enterprising people had been 
engaged in whaling and other marine ventures, but when 
these industries were crippled by British cruisers during the 
War of Independence, they came to Hudson to find a more 
secluded haven. They were methodical and industrious ; they 
even brought their houses, framed and ready for immediate 
erection, on their brig, the "Comet." The settlers opened 
clay pits, burned bricks and built a first class wharf. In 1785 
the port was the second in the state in the extent of its ship- 
ping. Two shipyards were established and a large ship, the 
"Hudson" was launched. Toward the end of the 18th cen- 
tury it was the third city in the state, and had one of the 
three banks then existing in N. Y. State. 

The War of 1812 caused a decline, but modern industry 
has revived the town, and its manufactures include Portland 
cement (one of the largest manufactories of that product in 
the United States is here), knit goods, foundry and machine 
shop products, ice machinery, brick and furniture. 

Huge ice houses are seen along this part of the Hudson River, 
and the question sometimes arises why the river, being partly salt, 
can yield ice fit for domestic or commercial use. The explanation is 
that the water, in freezing, rejects four-fifths or more of its content 
of salt. 

Four miles above Hudson we pass the estuary of Stock- 
port, on the north bank of which, at Kinderhook, once lived 
Martin Van Buren, eighth president of the U. S. 

The son of a farmer and tavern keeper, Van Buren (1782-1862) 
was born at Kinderhook, N. Y., of Dutch descent. He obtained a 
scanty education, and it is said that as late as 1829, when he became 
secretary of state, he wrote crudely and incorrectly. He was ad- 
mitted to the bar in 1803 in N. Y., allied himself with the "Clintonians" 
in politics and later became a leading member of the powerful coterie 
of Democratic politicians known as the "Albany regency," which 
ruled N. Y. politics for more than a generation, and was largely re- 
sponsible for the introduction of the "Spoils System" into state and 
national affairs. Van Buren's proficiency in this variety of politics 
earned him the nickname of "Little Magician." In 1821 he was elected 
to the U. S. Senate, and in 1828 governor of N. Y., and in the follow- 
ing year was made secretary of state by President Jackson, who used 
his influence to obtain the nomination of Van Buren for president 
in 1836. William Henry Harrison, the Whig candidate, was his prin- 
cipal opponent, and the popular vote showed a plurality of less than 



44 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

25,000 for Van Buren. Van Buren's administration was compelled 
to bear the weight of errors committed by Jackson, his predecessor, 
and though he showed unexpected ability and firmness in his admin- 
istration, he was defeated for re-election by Harrison. 

130 M. SCHODACK LANDING, Pop. 1,215. (Train 51 
passes 11:17; No. j, 11:45; No. 41, 3:55; No. 25, 5:30; No. 
/o, 8:37. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 6:24; No. 26, 6:45; No. 16, 
12:41; No. 22, 2:20.) Schodack was the Dutch rendering of 
the Indian word "Esquatack," meaning- "the fireplace of the 
nation." The island opposite the station was the site of the 
first council fire of the Mohican Indians, who were grouped 
about their "fire place" in 40 villages. They inhabited the 
Hudson Valley and their domain extended into Mass. 

In consequence of attacks by the Mohawks the Mohicans moved 
from their council fire to what is now Stockbridge, Mass., in 1664. 
Later many migrated to the Susquehanna Valley and became absorbed 
into the Delawares. The descendants of those who were left at 
Stockbridge are now assembled with some of the Munsees on a 
reservation at Green Bay, Wis. They are truly the "last of the 
Mohicans." Cooper's story of that name dealt with the earlier period 
of their dispersal. 

In the early days Douw's Point on the right bank, a few 
miles below Albany, was the head of steamboat navigation. 
Passengers for Albany used to transfer at this point to the 
stage. It was here that the "Half Moon" reached its farthest 
point on its northward trip up the Hudson. 

Theodore Roosevelt in his History of New York says: "During 
the "Half Moon's" inland voyage her course had lain through scenery 
singularly wild, grand and lonely. She had passed the long line of 
frowning battlemented rock walls that we know by the name of the 
Palisades; she had threaded her way round the bends where the 
curving river sweeps in and out among cold peaks — Storm King, 
Crow's Nest, and their brethren; she had sailed in front of the Cat- 
skill Mts., perhaps thus early in the season crowned with shining 
snow. From her decks the lookouts scanned with their watchful 
eyes dim shadowy wastes, stretching for countless leagues on every 
hand; for all the land was shrouded in one vast forest, where red 
hunters who had never seen a white face followed wild beasts, upon 
whose kind no white man had ever gazed." 

In modern days the channel has been enlarged, deepened 
and protected by concrete dykes, which are seen at intervals 
along the upper river, so that the Hudson is now utilized for 
navigation as far as Troy. On the left bank just above Parr's 
Island is the estuary of the Normans Kill, which flows through 
the valley of Tawasentha, where, according to Indian tradi- 
tion, once lived the "mighty Hiawatha." 

Hiawatha (the word means "he makes rivers") was a legendary 
chief, about 1450, of the Onondaga Tribe of Indians. The formation 
of the League of Five Nations, known as the Iroquois, is attributed 



NEW YORK TO ALBANY 



45 



to him by Indian tradition. He was regarded as a sort of divinity — 
the incarnation of human progress and civilization. Longfellow's 
poem "Hiawatha" embodies the more poetical ideas of Indian nature- 
worship. In this version of the story, Hiawatha was the Son of 
Mudjekeewis (the West Wind) and Wenonah, the daughter of Na- 
komis, who fell from the moon. 

142 M. RENSSELAER, Pop. 10,823. (Train 51 passes 
11:30; No. 3, 12:02; No. 41, 4:12; No. 25, 5:44; No. 19, 8:53. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 6:00; No. 26, 6:32; No. 16, 12:27; 
No. 22, 2:07.) Rensselaer, originally called Greenbush, lies 
directly across from Albany. It was first settled in 1631 and 
the site formed part of a large tract of land bought from the 
Indians by agents of Killiaen Van Rensselaer. On the lower 
edge of the town Ft. Cralo,* built in 1642 for protection against 
the Indians, still stands ; the fort has a special interest in be- 
ing connected with the origin of Yankee Doodle. 

Some writers claim that Cralo is the oldest fort still preserved 
in the U. S. Its white oak beams are said to be 18 inches square; 
its walls are 2 to 3 ft. thick, and some of the old portholes still re- 
main. According to tradition there were once secret passages con- 
necting the fort with the river. About 1770, during the French and 
Indian Wars, Maj. James Abercrombie had his headquarters here. 

Yankee Doodle is said to have been composed at the fort by Dr. 
Schuckburgh, a British surgeon, as a satire on the provincial troops, 
who did not show to advantage among the smartly dressed British 
soldiers. The Yankees, however, adopted the words and the tune, 
and less than 20 years later the captured soldiers of Burgoyne marched 
behind the lines of the victorious Continentals to the same melody. 




Albany from Van Rensselaer Island in 1831 



46 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Albany to Syracuse 

142 M. ALBANY, Pop. 113,344. (Train 31 passes 11 :32; 
No. 3, 12:05; No. 41, 4:15; No. 25, 5:46; No. 19, 8:55. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 5:58; No. 26, 6:30; No. 16, 12:25; No. ^2, 
2:05.) Across the river from Rensselaer on sharply mounting 
hills is the city of Albany. We cross the river by a suspen- 
sion bridge, passing over Rensselaer Island and seeing ahead 
of us the handsome new freight houses of the D. & H. R. R., 
and to right and left the boats of the Hudson River Steam- 
ship lines lying against the wharves. Once over the bridge 
the tracks swerve to the right, and soon lead into the Union 
Station. 

Almost under the shadow of the present Capitol, on a 
meadow to the north, Ft. Orange was built in 1624, when 18 
families of Dutch Walloons selected this site for a permanent 
settlement in the New World. The history of Albany, how- 
ever, is usually dated from ten years earlier when Dutch 
traders built Ft. Nassau on Castle Island, the present Rensse- 
laer Island. 

According to some writers a temporary trading post was estab- 
lished here by the French as early as 1540 — 80 years before the 
Pilgrims landed at Plymouth. But it is on the date 1614 that Albany 
lays claim to being the second oldest settlement in the colonies, 
Jamestown, founded in 1607 by Capt. John Smith and Christopher 
Newport, being the first. It is interesting to note that the Pilgrim 
Fathers narrowly missed making a settlement somewhere along the 
Hudson River. William Bradford, second governor of the Plymouth 
colony, tells in his history, how, at one point in the Mayflower's voyage, 
they determined "to find some place about Hudson's river for their 
habitation." But, after sailing half a day, "they fell amongst danger- 
ous shoulds and roving breakers," and so decided to bear up again 
for Cape Cod. 

During the early days Albany held high rank among 
American settlements. As a center of trade and civilization 
it rivalled Jamestown, Manhattan and Quebec. In 1618 the 
Dutch negotiated here the first treaty with the Iroquois, 
which tended to preserve friendly relations with the Indians 
for more than a century to come. 

The territory of the Iroquois, or Six Nations, the most celebrated 
of Indian confederations, extended from Albany to Buffalo, that is, 
over just the country through which the New York Central runs. 
The name is that given to them by the French and is said to be 
formed of two ceremonial words constantly used by the tribesmen 
meaning "real adders." The league was originally composed of five 
tribes or nations — the Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Senecas and 
Cayugas. The conferation probably took place about 1580. In 1722 
the Tuscaroras were admitted, the league then being called that of 
the Six Nations. Without realizing the far-reaching effect of his 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



47 



action, Samuel D. Champlain (1567-1635), the French explorer, prob- 
ably changed the entire course of history by joining the Algonquins 
and Hurons in an attack in 1608 on the Iroqnois near the present 
town of Ticonderoga. The Iroquois never forgave the French for 
the part they played in this battle and naturally turned first to the 
Dutch and then to the English for allies. "Thus did New France," 
says Parkman, "rush into collision with the redoubted warriors of 
the Five Nations. Here was the beginning, and in some measure 
doubtless the cause, of a long series of murderous conflicts, bearing 
havoc and flame to generations yet unborn." Parkman estimates that 
in the period after the Tuscaroras joined the Iroquois, the Six Na- 
tions had a population of about 12,000 with not more than 2,1 50 fight- 
ing men. It is a matter of some surprise that so small a fighting 



Stephen Van Rensselaer 

Stephen Van Rensselaer was the 
eighth patroon and fifth in descent from 
Killiacn, the first lord of the Manor. 
He was lieutenant governor of X. Y.. 
an ardent promoter of the Erie Canal, 
a major general in the War of 1812 
(during which he was defeated in the 
Battle of Queenstown Heights), and 
represented N. V. in Congress from 
1822 to 1829. In 1S24 lie founded a 
school in Troy, which was incorporated 
two years later as the Rensselaer Poly- 
technic Institute. 




force could wield so great a power in the early days. But Theodore 
Roosevelt, in speaking of the Indians as warriors, says: "On their 
own ground they were far more formidable than the best European 
troops. It is to this day doubtful whether the superb British regulars 
at Braddock's battle or the Highlanders at Grant's defeat a few 
years later, were able to so much as kill one Indian for every hun- 
dred of their own men who fell." Although up to that time they 
had been loyal friends of the colonists, in the War of Independence 
the Iroquois fought on the English side, and by repeated battles 
their power was nearly destroyed. From very early times a silver 
"covenant chain" was used as a symbol of their treaties with the 
Whites, and each time a new treaty was signed the covenant chain 
was renewed or reburnished. There are perhaps 17,000 descendants 
of the Iroquois now living in reservations in New York State, Okla- 
homa, Wisconsin and Canada. 

In 1629 the Dutch government granted to Killiaen van 
Rensselaer, an Amsterdam diamond merchant, a tract of land, 



48 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

24 Sq. M., centering at Ft. Orange, over which he was given 
the feudal powers of a patroon. 

The patroons, under the Dutch regime, were memhers of the 
Dutch West India Co., who received large grants of land, called 
Manors, in New Netherlands. These grants carried with them semi- 
feudal rights, and the patroon could exercise practically autocratic 
powers in his domain. The first of the patroons, Killiaen van Rens- 
selaer (1580-1645), never came to this country, but he sent over numer- 
ous settlers as tenants. The Manor was called Rensselaerswyck, and 
comprised all of the present counties of Albany and Rensselaer, and 
part of Columbia. 

This was the first manorial grant in New Netherlands 
and was destined to endure the longest. The colonists sent 
to this country by van Rensselaer were industrious and the 
town prospered, although in 1644, it was described by Father 
Jognes, a Jesuit priest, as "a miserable little fort called Fort 
Orange, built of logs, with four or five pieces of Breteuil can- 
non, and as many swivels ; and some 25 or 30 houses built of 
boards, and having thatched roofs." On account of its favor- 
able commercial and strategic position at the head of nagiva- 
tion on the Hudson and at the gateway of the Iroquois coun- 
try and the far west, it maintained its importance among 
colonial settlements for a century and a half. Its early name, 
Beverwyck, was changed to Albany — one of the titles of the 
Duke of York, afterwards James II. — when New Netherlands 
was transferred to the English (1644). Albany was granted 
a charter in 1686, and the first mayor (appointed by Gov. Don- 
gan) was Peter Schuyler, who was likewise chairman of the 
Board of Indian Commissioners. 

Peter Schuyler (1657-1724) was a son of Philip Pieterse Schuyler 
(d. 1683), who migrated from Amsterdam in 1650. The family was 
one of the wealthiest and most influential in the colony, and it was 
closely related by marriage to the van Rensselaers, the van Cort- 
landts and other representatives of the old Dutch aristocracy. 

Representatives of Mass., R. I., N. H., Conn., N. Y., Pa., 
and Md., met in Albany in June, 1754, for the purpose of con- 
firming and establishing a close league of friendship with the 
Iroquois and of arranging for a permanent union of the col- 
onies. This was the first important effort to bring about a 
Colonial confederation. 

The Indian affairs having been satisfactorily adjusted, the conven- 
tion, after considerable debate, in which Benjamin Franklin, Stephen 
Hopkins and Thomas Hutchinson took a leading part, adopted a plan 
for a union of the colonies on the basis of a scheme submitted by 
Franklin. This plan provided for a representative governing body to 
he known as the Grand Council, to which each colony should elect 
delegates for a term of three years. Neither the British government 
nor the growing party in the Colonies which was clamoring for 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



49 



colonial rights received the plan with favor — the former holding that 
it gave the colonies too much independence and the latter that it gave 
them too little. 

At about this time a Swedish naturalist, Peter Kalm, 
visiting Albany, reported that "there is not a place in all the 
British colonies, the Hudson Bay settlement excepted, where 
such quantities of furs and skins are bought of the Indians 
as at Albany." Most of the houses at this time were built 
of brick and stood with gable ends to the street; each house 
had a garden and a stocp, where the family were accustomed 
to sit summer evenings, the burgher with his pipe and his 
"vrouw" with her knitting. Well-to-do families owned slaves, 




North Pearl St., Albany (About 1780), Looking North from State St. to Maiden Lane 
(From an old French print in the N. Y. Public Library) 
In the It- ft foreground is the south end of the Livingston house. Just beyond, 
with two high gables facing the street, is the Vanderheyden Palace, erected 1725. 
The square building at the rear, corner of Maiden Lane, is the residence of Dr. 
Ilunloke Woodruff. In the right foreground (on the corner) is the Lydius House, 
erected in 1657. 



but according to Mrs. Anne Grant, an English writer of the 
day who spent part of her childhood in Albany, "it was slav- 
ery softened into a smile." 

It was here that the English from all the colonies, before 
and during the French and Indian wars, met to consult with 
the Indians and make treaties with them. It was the gather- 



50 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

ing place of armies where troops from all the colonies assem- 
bled, and the objective of hostile French forces and their 
Indian allies on several occasions, yet was never taken by 
an enemy and never saw an armed foe. Even during the 
Revolutionary War, when its strategic importance was fully 
recognized by both armies, it remained immune, though at 
one time the objective against which Burgoyne's unsuccess- 
ful expedition was directed. 

In 1777 the English general, John Burgoyne (1722-1792), was 
placed at the head of British and Hessian forces gathered for the in- 
vasion of the Colonies from Canada and the cutting off of New Eng- 
land from the rest of the Colonies. He gained possession of Ticon- 
deroga and Ft. Edward; but pushing on, was cut off from his com- 
munications with Canada and hemmed in by a superior force at 
Saratoga Springs, 30 M. north of Albany. On the 17th of Oct. his 
troops, about 3,500 in number, laid down their arms, surrendering to 
Gen. 'Horatio Gates. This success was the greatest the colonists had 
yet achieved and proved the turning-point in the war. 

In 1797 Albany became the permanent state capital. The 
election of Martin Van Buren as governor in 1828 marked 
the beginning of the long ascendancy in the state of the 
"Albany Regency," a political coterie of Democrats in which 
Van Buren, W. L. Marcy, Benjamin Franklin Butler and 
Silas Wright \\ ere among the leaders. 

Thurlow Weed (1797-1882), the bitterest enemy of this coterie, 
and the man who gave them their name, declared of them that he 
"had never known a body of men who possessed so much power and 
used it so well." Until the election of William H. Seward (the Whig 
candidate) as governor in 1838, New York had usually been Demo- 
cratic, largely through the predominating influence of Van Buren and 
the "Regency." Weed had an important share in bringing about their 
defeat. He owed his early political advancement to the introduction 
into state politics of the Anti-Masonic issue; for a time he edited the 
Anti-Masonic Enquirer. In 1830 he established and became editor of 
the Albany Evening Journal, which he controlled for thirty-five years. 

The anti-rent war, precipitated by the death of Stephen 
van Rensselaer (1764-1839), the "last of the patroons," cen- 
tered about Albany. The final settlement of this outbreak, 
which began with rioting and murder, and ended with the 
election of a governor favorable to the tenants (1846), dis- 
posed of feudal privilege in New York State which had flour- 
ished here until well into the 19th century, though it had 
disappeared elsewhere. 

• The anti-rent agitation began in the Hudson River counties dur- 
ing the first administration of Gov. Seward (1839). The greater part 
of the land in this section was comprised in vast estates such as the 
Rensselaerswyck, Livingston, Scarsdale, Philipse, I'elham and Van 
Cortlandt manors, and on these the leasehold system, with perpetual 
leases, and leases for 99 years (or the equivalent), had become gen- 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



51 



eral. Besides rents, many of the tenants were required to render 
certain services to the proprietor, and in case a tenant sold his interest 
in a farm to some one else he was required to pay the proprietor one- 
tenth to one-third of the amount received, as an alienation fee. 

Stephen van Rensselaer had permitted his rents, especially those 
from poorer tenants, to fall much in arrears, and the effort of his 
heirs to collect them — they amounted to about $200,000 — was met 
with armed opposition. In Rensselaer county a man was murdered, 




Ancient Dutch Church, Albany (1714) 

{From an old print in the X. Y. Public Library) 

This church, built of bricks brought from Holland, stood for about 92 years 
in the open area formed by the angle of State, Market and Court streets. It was 
erected in less than four weeks. The early Dutch felt that without the church 
they could not hope to prosper. The old church was of Gothic style, one story 
high, and the glass of its antique windows was richly ornamented with coats of 
arms. In 1806 the church was taken down and its brick employed in the erection 
of the South Dutch Church, between Hudson and Beaver streets, which in turn was 
later replaced by a newer structure. 



and Gov. Seward was forced to call out the militia. The tenants, 
however, formed anti-rent associations in all the affected counties, 
and in 1844 began a reign of terror, in which, disguised as Indians, 
they resorted to flogging, tarring and feathering, and boycotting, as 
weapons against all who dealt with the landlords. This culminated 



52 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

in the murder of a deputy sheriff in Delaware county. In 1846 the 
anti-rent associations secured the election of Gov. John Young as 
well as several legislators favorable to their cause, and promoted the 
adoption of a new constitution abolishing feudal tenures and limiting 
future agricultural leases to twelve years. Under the pressure of 
public opinion the great landlords rapidly sold their farms. 

Stephen van Rensselaer was the 8th patroon and 5th in descent 
from Killiaen, the first lord of the manor. He was lieutenant-gov- 
ernor of New York, an ardent promoter of the Erie canal, a major- 
general in the War of 1812 (during which he was defeated at the 
battle of Queenstown Heights) and represented New York in congress 
from 1822 to 1829. In 1824 he founded a school in Troy which was 
incorporated two years later as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 

Comparatively few ancient landmarks remain in Albany, 
though there are some fine specimens of the Dutch and later 
colonial architecture still standing - . Of these the best known 
is the Schuyler mansion,* built by Gen. Philip Schuyler, in 
1760, which, after serving for many years as an orphan asy- 
lum, was recently purchased by the state and converted into 
a museum. 

Having served in the French and Indian wars, Philip Schuyler 
(1733-1804) was chosen one of the four major-generals in the Conti- 
nental service at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War and was 
placed in command of the northern department of New York with 
headquarters at Albany. The necessary withdrawal of the army from 
Crown Point in 1776 and the evacuation of Ticonderoga in 1777 were 
magnified by his enemies into a disgraceful retreat, and he was tried 
by court martial but acquitted on every charge. He was a delegate 
from N. Y. to the Continental Congress in 1779, and later joined 
his son-in-law, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay and others in the move- 
ment for the ratification by New York of the Federal constitution. 
In 1790 he was elected to the U. S. senate. "For bravery and gener- 
osity," says John Fiske, "he was like the paladin of some mediaeval 
romance." 

The Van Rensselaer manor-house, built in 1765, was 
pulled down in 1893 and reconstructed on the campus of Wil- 
liams College, Williamstown, Mass., where it forms the Sigma 
Phi fraternity house. In the Albany Academy, built in 1813 
by Philip Hooker, architect of the old State Capitol, Prof. 
Joseph Henry demonstrated (1831) the theory of the mag- 
netic telegraph by ringing an electric bell at the end of a 
mile of wire strung around the room. Bret Harte, the writer, 
was born in 1839 in Albany, where his father was teacher of 
Greek in the Albany College, a small seminary. 

Bret Harte lived in Albany until his 17th year. In 1896, lured by 
the gold rush, he left for California with his mother, then a widow. 
Once there, the rough but fascinating chaos engulfed him, and from 
it, at first hand, he drew the stage properties — Spaniards, Greasers, 
gambling houses — the humor, sin and chivalry of the '49 — which color 
all his stories. After some little journalism and clerking, he was 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



53 



made secretary to the Supt. of the Mint, a position which was not too 
exacting to allow a great deal of leisure for writing. Later he re- 
turned to the East with his family, made his home in N. Y. C. and 
gave all his time to authorship. Apparently his success somewhat 
turned his head. He lived beyond his means, passing his summers 
at Newport, Lenox and other expensive places, until his unbusiness- 
like habits and chronic indebtedness became notorious. In 1878 he 
accepted a consulate at Crefeld, Prussia. He spent the rest of his 
life abroad and died in England in 1902. 

Modern buildings of interest include the City Hall,* a 
beautiful French Gothic building ; the State Educational 
Building, with its valuable library; the Albany Institute, with 
its art galleries; the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, 
built of brownstone, with spires 210 ft. high; the Cathedral 




The First Passenger Train in N. Y. State Leaving Schenectady for Albany, 

July 30, 1831 

On its first trip this train, now preserved on the right balcony of the Grand 
Central Terminal, attained a speed of nine miles an hour. The route between Albany 
and Schenectady was practically identical with that of the present New York Central 
lines. 



of All Saints, a fine specimen of Gothic architecture, said to 
be the first regularly organized Protestant Episcopal cathedral 
erected in the United States (1883), St. Peter's Church, and, 
most important, the State Capitol.* 

The Capitol occupies a commanding position in Capitol Square. 
Tt is built of white Maine granite, and cost about $25,000,000. Mil- 
lions were spent in alteration and reconstruction, due to the use of 
inferior materials and to mistakes in engineering design. The corner- 
stone was laid 1871, and the building was completed, with the excep- 
tion of the central tower, in 1904. The legislature first met here in 



54 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

1879. The original designs were by Thomas Fuller, who also de- 
signed the parliamentary building at Ottawa, but they were consid- 
erably altered. The beautiful Western staircase of red sandstone 
(from plans by Isaac Gale Perry) and the senate chamber (designed 
by H. H. Richardson) are the most striking features of the building. 
The present capitol suffered a heavy loss in the burning of its library 
in 1911, by which many unreplaceable books and original documents 
were destroyed. 

The city has 1 1 parks, comprising- 402 acres ; the most 
notable is Washington Park, which contains two well known 
statues — one of Robert Burns, by Charles Caverley, and the 
bronze and rock fountain, "Moses at the Rock of Horeb," by 
J. Massey Rhind. The city's filtration system is of special 
interest to engineers ; it occupies 20 acres, has eight filter 
beds, and filters 15,000,000 gallons of water daily. 

Albany's key position with respect to New York, Boston 
and Buffalo ensured its commercial development. The first 
passenger railroad in America was operated between Albany 
and Schenectady. 

The first train in the state, consisting of the locomotive "De Witt 
Clinton," named for the seventh governor, and three coaches (re- 
sembling early stage coaches), was built for the Mohawk and Hudson 
Railroad Co., the original unit of the present New York Central Lines, 
and was chartered in 1826 to run from Albany to Schenectady — a dis- 
tance of 16 M. The locomotive was constructed at the West Point 
foundry and taken to Albany by boat. It had its first trial on rails, 
July 30, 1831, burning anthracite coal and attaining a speed of 7 M. 
an hour. After remodeling, it made the trip from Albany to Schenec- 
tady in one hour and 45 minutes, using pine wood for fuel. On Aug. 
9, 1831, two trips were made, during which a speed of 30 M. an hour 
was reached. The train ran on iron "straps" nailed to wooden 
"stringers." As originally built the locomotive weighed 6,758 
pounds, which, in remodeling, was increased to 9,420 pounds — less 
than the weight of one pair of wheels of a modern locomotive. At 
a banquet on the occasion of the formal opening of the line (Aug. 13, 
1831), President Camberling of the railroad gave the following toast: 
"The Buffalo Railroad! May we soon breakfast at Utica, dine at 
Rochester, and sup with our friends on Lake Erie." The original 
train is still preserved and may be seen in the right balcony of the 
Grand Central Station, N. Y. C. 

The first steamboat in the United States made its initial 
trips between N. Y. and Albany, and the first canal connected 
Albany with Buffalo. 

The original Erie Canal was one of the greatest of early engineer- 
ing projects in America, and its importance in the development of 
N. Y. State, and of the country to the west, can hardly be overesti- 
mated. Construction was begun in 1817, under a commission includ- 
ing Gouverneur Morris, De Witt Clinton, Robert Fulton, and Robert 
R. Livingston, and in 1825 the main channel, 363 miles in length, was 
opened between Albany and Buffalo, the total cost being $7,143,790. 
Three branches were added later. At the close of 1882, when tolls 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 55 

were abolished, the total revenues derived from the canal had been 
$121,461,871, while expenditures had amounted to $78,862,154. Various 
factors, including the competition of the railroads, caused a consider- 
able decline in canal traffic in the last quarter of a century. The old 
canal was a ditch following the line of the Mohawk and other rivers 
and creeks. The new barge canal system has four branches, the Erie, 
from Albany to Buffalo; the Champlain, from Albany to Lake Cham- 
plain; the Oswego, which starts north midway on the line of the Erie 
Canal and reaches Lake Ontario, and the Cayuga and Seneca, which 
leaves the Erie canal a little to the west of the Oswego junction and 
extends south, first to Cayuga Lake and then to Seneca Lake. The 
new canal system was first intended for 1,000 ton barges, but its capac- 
ity has been made much larger. Various sections of the improved 
canal were completed between 1916 and 1918, and the total cost has 
been about $150,000,000. 

Within 35 years Albany has increased fivefold in size, 
and is today the intersecting point of the principal water 
routes of the Eastern States, for besides being near the head 
of navigation for large steamers on the Hudson, it is virtually 
the terminus of the N. Y. State barge canal. It is also the 
key point in the transportation system of the state, for here 
the B. & A. and the D. & H. railroads meet the New York 
Central, so that one can take train for Buffalo and Chicago, 
the Thousand Islands, the Adirondacks, Saratoga, Lakes 
George and Champlain, Montreal, Vermont and the Green 
Mts., the Berkshires, and Boston. It is the second largest ex- 
press and third largest mail transfer point in the United 
States. The forests of the Adirondacks and of Canada have 
made it a great lumber post. Its manufactures have an annual 
value of $30,000,000 or more ; they include iron goods, stoves, 
wood and brass products, carriages and wagons, brick and 
tile, shirts, collars and cuffs, clothing and knit goods, shoes, 
flour, tobacco, cigars, billiard balls, dominoes and checkers. 

Leaving Albany, we follow closely the path of the old 
Iroquois Trail, which was in early days, as now, the chief 
highway to the Great Lakes. 

The Indian trail began at Albany and led directly across the coun- 
try to Schenectady; from this point to Rome there were two trails, 
one on either side of the Mohawk. That on the south side had the 
most travel as it led through three Mohawk "castles" or villages, one 
at the mouth of the Schoharie Creek, one at Canajoharie, and the 
third at the town of Danube, opposite the mouth of East Canada 
Creek. Farther on, the trail passed through the present towns of 
Fort Plain, Utica and Whitesboro. The trail on the north bank led 
through Tribes Hill, Johnstown, Fonda and Little Falls, where it 
united with the main traveled route. 

At West Albany are extensive shops of the New York Central 
Lines. When working full capacity about 1,400 men are employed 
here. The machines are all of modern design and electrically driven. 
There are large freight yards having a trackage of nearly 100 M. The 



56 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 




1831-1921 

Showing the dimensions of the first equipment of the present New York Cen- 
tral Lines — the DeWitt Clinton and three coaches — in comparison with the modern 
locomotive used to draw the Twentieth Century and other fast trains. 



passenger car shops include two great buildings which are used for 
making general repairs and one for construction of steel equipment. 
One of the repair buildings is 42 ft. by 200 ft. and has a track capacity 
of 100 cars, and the other, 400 ft. by 80 ft., a capacity of 180 cars. 
There are two enormous paint shops, a blacksmith shop, where nu- 
merous forgings are made for other departments, a woodmill, a 
machine-shop with a floor space of 13,000 sq. ft., and cabinet, uphol- 
stering, brass and plating shops. The truck shop covers 1,800 sq. ft., 
and is used for building and general repairs of trucks of wood, built-up 
steel, and cast-iron. From the tin and pipe shop is supplied all the 
light metal ware needed by the railroad. 

159 M. SCHENECTADY, Pop. 88,723. (Train 51 passes 
11:57; No. 3, 12:47; No. 41, 4:57; No. 25, 6:12; No. 19, 9:32. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 5:24; No. 26, 5:56; No. 16, 11:35; 
No. 22, 1.24.) At this point we first enter the historic Mo- 
hawk Valley, and on this site, according - to tradition, once 
stood the chief village of the Mohawk Indians. 

The Mohawk River rises in Lewis County (northwestern N. Y.), 
flows south to Rome, then east to the Hudson River which it 
enters at Cohoes. It is 160 miles long. There are rapids and falls 
at Little Falls and Oriskauy which have been utilized to develop elec- 
tric power. The Mohawk valley is noted for its beauty and the fertility 
of its soil. The name Mohawk is probably derived from an Indian 
word meaning "man-eaters" ; but the Mohawks' own name for their 
tribe was Kaniengehaga, "people of the flint." They lived in the region 
bounded on the north by the Lake of Corlear, on the east by the Falls 
of Cohoes, on the south by the sources of the Susquehanna, and on the 
west by the country of the Oneidas. The dividing line between the 
Mohawk and Oneida tribes passed through the present town of Utica. 
The Mohawks had the reputation of being the bravest of the Iroquois; 
they furnished the war chief for the Six Nations and exercised the 
right to collect tribute in the form of wampum from the Long Island 
tribes and to extend their conquests along the sea coast. The tribes, 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 57 

along both banks of the Hudson River, it is said, shrank before their 
war cry. In the War of Independence they fought with the English, 
and finally took refuge in Canada, where most of them have remained. 

The first settlement at Schenectady was made in 1642 by 
Arendt Van Corlear and a band of immigrants who had be- 
come dissatisfied with conditions on the Manor of Rennsel- 
aerwyck, where Corlear was manager of the estates of his 
cousin, Killiaen van Rennselaer. 

Van Corlear had emigrated to America about 1630 and while man- 
ager of Rennselaerwyck he earned the confidence of the Indians, 
among whom "Corlear" became a generic term for the English gov- 
ernors, and especially the governors of N. Y. The name Kora, 
derived from the same source, is said to be used even today by surviv- 
ing Iroquois in Canada to designate the English king. 

To each of the 15 original proprietors, except Van Cor- 
lear, who was to receive a double portion, was assigned a 
village lot of 200 sq. ft., a tract of bottom land for farm- 
ing purposes, a strip of woodland, and common pasture rights. 
Many of the early settlers were well-to-do and brought their 
slaves with them, and for many years the settlement, originally 
known as Dorp, was reputed the richest in the colony. 

Schenectady was spelled in a great variety of ways in the 
early records. Its Indian equivalent signified "Back Door" 
of the Long House — the territory occupied by the Six Na- 
tions. 

In an early map (1655) the name appears as Scanacthade. As late 
as 1700 the spelling was still uncertain, as the following minutes from 
the record of the common council of September 3, of that year show: 
"The Church wardens of Shinnechtady doe make application that two 
persons be appointed to go around among the inhabitants of the City 
to see if they can obtain any Contributions to make up ye Sellary due 
their minister." Other ways of spelling the name were Schanechtade 
and Schoneghterdie. 

In 1690 the young village received a setback which very 
nearly brought its early history to an end; on Feb. 9 of that 
year, the French and Indians surprised and burned the village, 
massacred 60 of the inhabitants and carried 30 into captivity. 

An old tradition says that an Indian squaw had been sent to warn 
the inhabitants, under cover of selling brooms. In the afternoon of 
Feb. 8, 1690, Dominic Tassomacher was being entertained with choco- 
late at the home of a charming widow of his parish when the squaw 
entered to deliver her message. The widow became indignant at the 
sight of snow on her newly scrubbed floor, and rebuked her unex- 
pected guest. The Indian woman replied angrily, "It shall be soiled 
enough before to-morrow," and left the house. The massacre occurred 
that night. 

Schenectady was rebuilt in the following years, but an 
outlying settlement was again the scene of a murderous 



58 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

French and Indian attack in 1748. In the land along the 
river, the old part of the town, Indian skulls and arrow heads 
are still found. 

English settlers arrived in considerable numbers about 
1700. About 1774 a number of Shaker settlements were made 
in the lower Mohawk valley. 

The Shakers, a celibate and communistic sect — officially the 
United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearance — received 
their common name from the fact that originally they writhed and 
trembled in seeking to free "the soul from the power of sin and a 
worldly life." They had trances and visions, and there was much 
jumping and dancing. The founder of the sect was Mother Ann Lee 
(1736-1784) of Manchester, England, who came to N. Y. with a 
number of relatives in 1774 and bought land in the lower Mohawk 
Valley. The first Shaker settlement was at Watervliet, not far from 
Troy. The settlers established a communistic organization with 
branches in Mass., and Conn. As a matter of practice they do not 
forbid, marriage, but refuse to recognize it; they consider there are 
four virtues: virgin purity, Christian communism, confession of sin, 
and separation from the world. The women wear uniform cos- 
tumes, and the men have long hair. The sect is diminishing. There 
are now less than 1,000 members in 17 societies in Mass., N. H., 
Maine, Conn., and Ohio, though at its most flourishing period it had 
nearly 5,000. 

Schenectady was chartered as a borough in 1765 and as a 
city in 1798, and from that period date many quaint examples 
of colonial architecture. In Scotia, a suburb to the northwest 
of the city, still stands the Glen-Sanders mansion (built 1713) 
described as "a veritable museum of antiquity, furnished from 
cellar to garret with strongly built, elegant furniture, two 
centuries old." Descendants of the original owners are still 
living there. A fine specimen of Dutch architecture is the 
so-called Abraham Yates house (1710) at No. 109 Union 
Street. The Christopher Yates house at No. 26 Front Street 
was the birth place of Joseph C. Yates, first mayor of Utica 
(1788) and governor of the state in 1823. Governor Yates 
afterwards lived, until his death, in the large colonial house 
at No. 17 Front Street. The old "depot" of the Mohawk & 
Hudson Railroad, the first steam passenger railway in Amer- 
ica, now incorporated with the New York Central, is still 
standing in Crane Street. 

Schenectady is the seat of Union College, which grew out 
of the Schenectady Academy (established in 1784) and many 
of the buildings dating back to the early 19th century are 
still in excellent preservation. They were designed by a 
French architect, Jacques Rame, and the original plans are 
still in the Louvre, in Paris. At one of the entrances to the 
college on Union Street is the Payne Gate, built as a memo- 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



59 



rial to John Howard Payne (1791-1852), author of "Home, 
Sweet Home," who was at one time a student at Union Col- 
lege. The college comprises the academic and engineering 
departments of Union University. The other departments of 
the university — medicine, law, and pharmacy, as well as the 
Dudley observatory — are at Albany. 

Up to the time of the building of the Erie Canal, 
Schenectady had been an important depot of the Mohawk 
River boat trade to the westward, but after the completion 
of the canal it suffered a decline. The modern manufactur- 
ing era, beginning about 1880, brought Schenectady growth 
and prosperity. To-day the city can boast that its products 
"light and haul the world." As we enter the town we pass 
on the left the main establishment of the General Electric 
Co., the largest electrical manufacturing plant in the world, 
with 200 buildings and 26,000 employees. 




"Dr. Watson's Electrical Machine" 
In 1768, when this picture, reproduced here from the First Edition of the 
Encyclopaedia Britannica, was published, only the most elementary principles of 
electricity had been discovered. Benjamin Franklin's discovery, made with the aid 
of a kite, that lightning is an electrical phenomenon, was the greatest advance in 
electrical science up to that time. "Electrical machines," such as that shown, were, 
designed to produce frictional or "static" electricity, of which the quantity is usually 
small, and is therefore now produced chiefly for laboratory experiments. When the 
wheel at the left was turned sufficient electricity was generated to cause a spark 
to jump between the two hands at the right. This machine paved the way for the 
invention of the dynamo electric machines for which Schenectady is world famous. 



In the years before 1886 Schenectady had been suffering from a 
long period of stagnation. In that year an official of the Edison 
Machine Works of N. Y. C. happened to pass through Schenectady 
and noticed two empty factories, the former Jones Car Works. The 



60 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Edison Company had been established in N. Y. C. about 1882 
by Thomas A. Edison, and it was now looking for an opportunity to 
remove elsewhere. Accordingly Schenectady was chosen, and in 1892 
the Edison Co. — which had been renamed the Edison General 
Electric Co. — and the Thompson Houston Electric Co. of Lynn, 
Mass., were consolidated and formed the General Electric Co. 
The main plant was at Schenectady, but other plants were re- 
tained at Lynn, Mass., and Harrison, N. J. The early electrical appa- 
ratus was crude and the output of the factory was small, but this con- 
solidation marked the beginning of a world-wide business. In 1893, 
the book value of the General Electric Co. factory was less than 
$4,000,000. Since then the company has spent more than $150,000,000 
improving and enlarging its plant. Branch factories are now main- 
tained at Lynn, Pittsville, and East Boston, Mass.; Harrison and 
Newark, N. J.; Erie, Pa.; Fort Wayne, Ind.; Toledo and Cleveland, 
Ohio. At Schenectady one may see the latest development in prac- 
tically every variety of electrical apparatus. There are in the General 
Electric plant individual factories devoted to generators, motors, tur- 
bines, transformers, switchboards, rheostats, wire and cable, and 
searchlights, as well as pattern shops, machine shops, brass and iron 
foundries, and testing, shipping and power stations. The company 
pays considerable attention to welfare work among its employees and 
free instruction in electrical engineering is given on a large scale. 

The American Locomotive Co., which likewise has a 
factory here, with 5,000 employees, turns out some of the 
largest and fastest locomotives produced in America or abroad. 
During - the last 35 years Schenectady has become one of the 
greatest industrial centers in the United States ; its total an- 
nual output has a value of nearly $100,000,000, the output of 
the General Electric Co. alone being about $75,000,000. 

We now cross the Mohawk River and Erie Canal, and our 
route ascends the valley of the Mohawk as far as Rome. To 
the south the Catskill Mts. are visible in the distance, and the 
outline of the Adirondack Mts. can be faintly seen to the 
north. 

This beautiful group of mountains was once covered, all but the 
highest peaks, by the Laurentian glacier, whose erosion, while per- 
haps having little effect on the large features of the region, has greatly 
modified it in detail, producing lakes and ponds to the number of more 
than 1,300 and causing many falls and rapids in the streams. In the 
Adirondacks are some of the best hunting and fishing grounds in the 
United States, which are so carefully preserved that there are quan- 
tities of deer and small game in the woods, and black bass and trout 
in the lakes. Some 3,000,000 acres are preserved. The scenery is 
wonderfully fine and the air so clear that many sanatoriums have been 
established for tuberculosis patients. 

175 M. AMSTERDAM, Pop. 33,524. (Train 51 passes 
12:15; No. 3, 1:12; No. 41, 5:20; No. 25, 6:30; No. 19, 9:52. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 5:07; No. 26, 5:39; No. 16, 11:10; 
No. 22, 1 :03.) Amsterdam was settled about 1775 and was 




Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) 
Sir William was a remarkable figure in early N. Y. history. He is said to 
have been the father of 100 children, chiefly by native mothers, either young 
squaws or wives of Indians who thought it an honor to surrender them to the 
king's agent. According to an early historian, the Indians of the Six Nations 
"carried their hospitality so far as to allow distinguished strangers the choice of a 
young squaw from among the prettiest of the neighborhood, as a companion during 
his sojourn with them." 



62 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

called Veedersburg until 1804 when its present name was 
adopted. It was for some time the home of Elisha Arnold, 
father of Benedict Arnold, but the latter was born in Norwich, 
Conn. (Jan. 14, 1741.) The so-called Guy Park Mansion 
built in 1763, by Guy Johnson, nephew of Sir William John- 
son, is still used as a private residence. Today Amsterdam 
ranks as the first city in the United States in the manufac- 
ture of carpets and second in the manufacturing of hosiery 
and knit goods. It has one of the largest pearl button fac- 
tories in the country ; other products are brushes, brooms, 
silk gloves, paper boxes, electrical supplies, dyeing machines, 
cigars, wagon and automobile springs ; the total value of the 
output being about $30,000,000 annually. 

178 M. FORT JOHNSON, Pop. 680. (Train 51 passes 
12:18; No. 3, 1:15; No. 41, 5:23; No. 25, 6:33; No. 19, 9:56. 
Eastbound : No. 6 passes 5 :03 ; No. 26, 5 :36 ; No. 16, 1 1 :03 ; No. 
22, 12:59. This village is named for the house* and fort erected 
here in 1742, by Sir William Johnson, one of the most re- 
markable of the early pioneers. 

Sir William Johnson (1715-1774) distinguished himself not only 
for the prosperous settlements which he built up along the valley of 
the Mohawk, but also for his military ability and his remarkable influ- 
ence with the Iroquois Indians. Born in Ireland, he came to America 
in 1738 for the purpose of managing a tract of land in this valley 
belonging to his uncle, Admiral Sir Peter Warren. The fort which he 
built on the site of the present village bearing his name soon became 
the center of trade with the Indians, and likewise a strategic point for 
Johnson's military ventures. The Mohawks adopted him and elected 
him a sachem. He was at various times superintendent of the affairs 
of the Six Nations, commissary of the province for Indian affairs, and 
major-general in the British army. As a commanding officer he di- 
rected the expedition against Crown Point (1755) and in September 
of that year defeated the French and Indians, at the battle of Lake 
George. For his success he received the thanks of parliament and was 
created a baronet. He took part in a number of other expeditions 
against the French and Indians, and as a reward for his services the 
king granted him a tract of 100,000 acres of land north of the Mohawk 
River. It was in a great measure due to his influence that the Iro- 
quois remained faithful to the cause of the colonies up to the time of 
the Revolutionary War. In 1739 Johnson married Catherine Wisen- 
berg, by whom he had three children. After her death he had various 
mistresses, including a niece of the Indian chief Hendrick, and Molly 
Brant, a sister of the famous chief, Joseph Brant. It is said that he 
was the father of 100 children in all. After the French and Indian 
War he retired to the present Johnstown. 

After 1763 the fort was occupied by his son Sir John, who, 
during the War of Independence organized a loyalist regiment 
known as the "Queen's Royal Greens," which he led at the 




Joseph Brant, "Thayendanegea" (1742-1807) 
(From original painting by Romney in collection of Earl of Warwick) 
Chief Thayendanegea (Joseph Brant) of the Mohawk tribe was an unusual 
character, combining the savage traits of an Indian Warrior and the more civilized 
qualities of a politician and diplomat. Born on the banks of the Ohio River, he 
was sent to an Indian charity school (now Dartmouth College) at Lebanon, Conn., 
by Sir William Johnson. He fought with the English in the French and Indian 
War and with the Iroquois against Pontiac in 1763. Subsequently he became a 
devout churchman and settled at Canajoharie or Upper Mohawk castle, where he 
devoted himself to missionary work and translated the Prayer Book and St. Mark's 
Cospel into the Mohawk tongue. In the Revolutionary War he led the Mohawks 
and other Indians friendly to the, British against the settlements on the N. Y. 
frontier, even taking part, despite his religion, in the Cherry Valley Massacre. 
After the war he aided the U. S. in securing treaties of peace with the Miamis 
and other western tribes. Subsequently he went to Canada as a missionary, and in 
1786 visited England, where he raised funds with which was erected the first Episco- 
pal Church in Upper Canada. Brant sat for his picture several times in England, 
once in 1776, at the request of Boswell (the author of the "Life of Johnson"), and 
during the same visit for the Romney portrait, at Warwick's request. In 1786 
he was painted for the Duke of Northumberland and for a miniature to present 
to his daughter. 



64 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



battle of Oriskany, and in raids on Cherry Valley (1778-1780) 
and on the Mohawk Valley. The house, once used as a fort, 
is described by an early writer thus : "Col. Johnson's man- 
sion is situated on the border of the north bank of the River 
Moack. It is three stories high (two with an attic) built of 
stone, with port-holes and a parapet, and flanked with four 
bastions on which are some small guns. In the yard, on both 
sides of the mansion, are two small houses ; that on the right 
of the entrance is a store, and that on the left is designed for 
workmen, negroes and other domestics. The yard gate is a 
heavy swing-gate, well ironed; it is on the Moack River side; 
from this gate to the river is about two hundred paces of 
level ground. The high road passes there." The place, now 
somewhat remodeled, is owned by the Montgomery County 
Historical Society and many curious historic relics are on ex- 
hibition here. It is open to the public daily. 

181 M. TRIBES HILL, Pop. 900. (Train 51 passes 
12:21; No. 3, 1:18; No. 41, 5:27; No. 25, 6:36; No. 19, 10:00. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 5:00; No. 26, 5:33; No. 16, 11:00; 



Father Isaac Jogues 

Isaac Jogues (1607-1646), a French 
missionary, came to this country to 
preach among the Hurons and Algon- 
quins. In 1642 he was captured by the 
Mohawks, who tortured him and kept 
him as a slave until the following sum- 
mer, when he escaped. Father Jogues 
returned in 1646 to establish a mission 
among his former tormentors. About 
this time a contagious disease broke 
out amongst the Indians, and to make 
matters worse their crops failed. For 
these misfortunes they blamed the 
French priest, tortured him as a sor- 
cerer and finally put him to death. 



No. 22, 12:56.) Tribes Hill received its name from the fact 
that it was an old meeting place of the Indians. Across the 
river, in the estuary at the junction of Schoharie Creek with 
the Mohawk, once stood Ft. Hunter, which was the lower 
Mohawk castle, the upper castle being at Canajoharie. 

A contemporary description says: "Ft. Hunter, known by the 
Indians as Ticonderoga, is one of the same form as that of Cana- 




ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 65 

joharie except that it is twice as large. It likewise has a house 
at each corner. The cannon at each bastion are seven and nine 
pounders. The pickets of this fort are higher than those at Cana- 
joharie. There is a church or temple in the middle of the fort, while 
in its inclosure are also some thirty cabins of Mohawk Indians, which 
is their most considerable village. This fort, like that of Canajoharie, 
has no ditch and has a large swing-gate at the entrance. There are 
some houses outside, though under the protection of the fort, in which 
the country people seek shelter when an Indian or French war party 
is looked for." 

About two miles farther at the little village of Auriesville 
on the left side of the Mohawk, where the river is joined by 
Auries Creek, there is a shrine (visible on the left from the 
train) marking 1 the spot where Father Jogues, a Jesuit Priest, 
was killed in 1646. 

186 M. FONDA, Pop. 747. (Train 51 passes 12:27; No. 
y, 1:25; No. 41, 5:39; No. 25, 6:42; No. 19, 10:05. Eastbound: 
No. 6 passes 4:55; No. 26, 5.28; No. 16, 10:55; No. 22, 12:51.) 
The town of Fonda was named for Jelles Fonda, said to have 
been the first merchant west of Schenectady. Fonda estab- 
lished a prosperous store here about 1760, and his old accounts 
(still preserved) disclose that he had among his customers 
"Young Baron of the Hill," "Wide Mouth Jacob," "Young 
Moses," "Snuffers David," and the "Squinty Cayuga." 

Following is a bill from Jelles Fonda's accounts : 

Young Moses, Dr. 

Sept. 20, 1762 £ s. d. 

To one French blanket 16 

' one small blanket 12 

" 4 Ells White linnen 8 

" 1 pair Indian stockings 6 

" 1 hat 8 

' 1 pt. of rum and one dram 14 

" 1 qt. rum 2 

I leave in pledge two silver wrist-bands. 
[In other words, the wrist-bands were put up as security for the 
debt.] 

Six miles north of Fonda is Johnstown (Pop. 10,908) 
where Sir William Johnson built his second residence (1762) 
now in the custody of the Johnstown Historical Society. It 
is a fine old baronial mansion. 

Sir William called this residence Johnson Hall and lived here with 
all the state of an English country gentleman. He devoted himself to 
colonizing his extensive lands and is said to have been the first to 
introduce sheep and pedigreed horses into the province. 

Sir William also built the Fulton County Court House 
with its jail (1772), used during the Revolutionary War as a 



66 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



civil and military prison. A free school, probably the first in 
N. Y. State, was established at Johnstown by Sir Wilt 
liam Johnson in 1764 in his residence. In 1766 he organized 
a Masonic Lodge, one of the oldest in the U. S. In 
1781, during - the War of Independence, Col. Marinus Wil- 
lett defeated here a force of British and Indians. The city is 
one of the principal glove making centers in the U. S. The 
total products are valued at about $3,000,000 annually. The 
manufacture of gloves in commercial quantities was intro- 
duced into the U. S. at Johnstown in 1809 by Talmadge Ed- 
wards, who was buried here in the Colonial Cemetery. 







rjffl 




MMSfcJ'Sf-jS&E 


,-A*-^ 










*', »* 


W&s» 




.. 






i^SBilk*' 


iglpa 


HH^^HiM*^ 




E 




^S ' MS --^m-'- K v^nii£V9 




mm *£ 


2jj 


2^52 









Old Ft. Van Rensselaer at Canajoharie (Built 1749) 

This building had originally been the home of Martin Janse Van Alstyn, and 
was so well built that it had withstood the attacks of the Indians under Brant in 
1780. It was therefore appropriated in 1781 by the American government, adopted 
as a fort, and placed under the control of Col. Marinus Willet, a competent officer 
chosen by Washington to handle the district in which Ft. Van Rensselaer and 
Ft. Plain were the military headquarters. (Still standing.) 



197 M. CANAJOHARIE (Palatine Bridge), Pop. 
2,415. (Train 5/ passes 12:40; No. 3, 1:39; No. 41, 5:55; No. 

25, 7:43; No. 19, 10:20. Eastbound : No. 6 passes 4:42; No. 

26, 5:45; No. 16, 10:44; No. 22, 12:36.) Passing the villages 
of Yosts and Sprakers we arrive in the town of Canajoharie, 
which in early days was the site of the upper Mohawk castle. 

The upper Mohawk castle, sometimes called Ft. Canajoharie, was 
described by an early writer as consisting of "a square of 4 bastions 
of upright pickets joined with lintels IS ft. high and about 1 
ft. square, with port-holes, and a stage all around to fire from. The 
fort was 100 paces on each side, had small cannon in its bastions, 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 67 

and houses to serve as a store and barracks. Five or 6 families of 
Mohawks reside outside the pickets. From Ft. Canajoharie to Ft. 
Hunter (the lower Mohawk castle) is about twelve league, with a 
good carriage road along the bank of the river." 

In 1749 a fortified dwelling- was built here known as Ft. 
Rensselaer, which was utilized as a place of defence during 
the Revolutionary War. Canajoharie was the home of the 
famous Indian leader, Joseph Brant. 

On the left, a little beyond Palatine Bridge, can be seen 
the red brick Herkimer mansion, near which a monument has 
been erected to Nicholas Herkimer, who died in 1777 from 
wounds received at Oriskany. We pass the village of Ft. 
Plain, St. Johnsville and East Creek. 

216 M. LITTLE FALLS, Pop. 13,029. (Train *i passes 
12:58; No. 3, 1:59; No. 41, 6:17; No. 25, 7:14; No. 19, 10:39. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 4:22; No. 26, 4:55; No. i6 y 10:22; 
No. 22, 12:16.) Our route here lies through a ravine cut by 
the Mohawk River through a spur of the Adirondack Mts. 
The town is picturesquely situated on the sides of the gorge 
overlooking the rapids and falls. The Mohawk here descends 
45 ft. in y 2 M. 

In the gorge, there are crystalline rocks which are of 
interest as belonging to the Laurentian formation, the oldest 
rock formation on the face of the globe. 

According to geological classification, these rocks belong to the 
Arch;ean system. They represent formations of the very earliest 
period of the earth's history — probably before there was any animal 
or vegetable life whatsoever. The Archrean rocks have sometimes 
been spoken of as the original crust of the earth, but this is disputed 
by many geologists. 

Little Falls dates from about 1750. In 1782 there was an 
influx of German settlers into the village, and almost imme- 
diately thereafter the town was destroyed by Indians and 
"Tories." It was resettled in 1790. Two and a half miles 
east of the town was the boyhood home of Gen. Nicholas 
Herkimer. 

Gen. Herkimer (1728-1777) was the son of John Jost Herkimer 
(d. 1775), one of the original group of German settlers in this section 
of the Mohawk Valley. Gen. Herkimer was colonel of the Tyrone 
County Militia in 1775, and was made brigadier general of the state 
militia in 1776. He was mortally wounded at the battle of Oriskany. 

It is planned to establish an Historical Museum at the 
old Herkimer homestead. Near the city is the grave of Gen. 
Herkimer, to whom a monument was erected in 1896. 



08 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

The water power derived from the falls has stimulated 
manufacturing in the city ; its output includes cotton yarns, 
hosiery, knit goods, leather, etc., valued at $15,000,000 an- 
nually. The city is one of the largest cheese markets in the 
U. S. 



Fort Plain (1777) 

(From an old print in the N. Y. Public Library) 

This was built in place of another unsatisfactory fort by the American 

government early in the Revolution, and was designed by an experienced 

French engineer. "As a piece of architecture, it was well wrought and neatly 

finished and surpassed all the forts in that region." 

223 M. HERKIMER, Pop. 10,453. (Train 31 passes 
1:07; No. 3, 2:06; No. 41, 6:25; No. 25, 7:22; No. 19, 10:47. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 4:15; No. 26, 4:49; No. 16, 10:12; 
No. 22, 12:08.) Herkimer was settled about 1725 by Palatine 
Germans, who bought from the Mohawk Indians a large tract 
of land, including the present site of the village. They estab- 
lished several settlements which became known collectively 
as "German Flats." 

These settlers came from the Palatinate, a province of the king- 
dom of Bavaria, lying west of the Rhine. The district had been torn 
by a succession of wars, culminating in the carnage wrought by the 
French in 1707. In the following year, more than 13,000 Palatines 
emigrated to America, settling first on the Livingston Manor, and 
later along the Mohawk and elsewhere. 

In 1756 a stone house (built in 1740 by John Jost Her- 
kimer), a stone church, and other buildings, standing within 
what is now Herkimer Village, were enclosed in a stockade 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 69 

by Sir William Johnson. This post, at first known as Ft. 
Kouari (the Indian name), was subsequently called Ft. Her- 
kimer. Another fort (Ft. Dayton) was built within the limits 
of the present village in 1776 by Col. Elias Dayton (1737- 
1807), who later became a brigadier-general and served in 
Congress in 1787-1788. During the French and Indian War 
the settlement was attacked (Nov. 12, 1757) and practically 
destroyed, many of the settlers being killed or taken prison- 
ers ; and it was again attacked on April 30, 1758. In the W T ar 
of Independence, Gen. Herkimer assembled here the force 
which on Aug. 6th, 1777, was ambushed near Oriskany on 
its march from Ft. Dayton to the relief of Ft. Schuyler. The 
settlement was again attacked by Indians and "Tories" in 
Sept. 1778, and still again in June, 1782. The township of 
Herkimer was organized in 1788, and in 1807 the village was 
incorporated. Herkimer is situated in a rich dairying region 
and has manufactures with an output of $4,000,000 annually. 

225 M. ILION, Pop. 10,169. (Train 51 passes 1:10; No. 
j, 2:10; No. 41, 6:29; No. 25, 7:25; No. 19, 10:51. Eastbound: 
No. 6 passes 4:12; No. 26, 4:46; No. 16, 10.07; No. 22, 12:05.) 
This village, the main part of which is situated on the south 
bank of the Mohawk, owed its origin to a settlement made 
here in 1725 by Palatine Germans, but the village as such 
really dates from the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825. 
In 1828 Eliphalet Remington (1793-1861) established here a 
small factory for the manufacture of rifles. He invented, and 
with the assistance of his sons, Philo, Samuel and Eliphalet, 
improved the famous Remington rifle. 

In 1856 the company added to its business the manufac- 
ture of farming tools, in 1870 of sewing machines and in 
1874 of typewriters. The last-named industry was sold to an- 
other company in 1886, and soon afterwards, on the failure 
of the original Remington company, the fire arms factory 
was bought by a N. Y. C. firm, though the Remington 
name was retained. The spot where Eliphalet had his primi- 
tive forge on the Ilion gorge road, just south of the town, is 
marked by a tablet placed there by the Daughters of the 
American Revolution. The principal manufactures today are 
typewriters, fire-arms, cartridges, and filing cabinets and office 
furniture. The annual output is valued at about $10,000,000. 

237 M. UTICA, Pop. 94,156. (Train 51 passes 1 :22 ; No. 
3, 2 :31 ; No. 41, 6 :42 ; No. 25, 7 :41 ; No. 19, 1 1 :08. Eastbound : 
No. 6 passes 3:57; No. 26, 4:31 ; No. 16, 9:53; No. 22, 11:50.) 



70 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



The territory on which Utica is built was originally part of 
the 22,000 acre tract granted in 1734 by George II. to William 
Cosby (1695-1736), colonial governor of New York in 1732-36, 
and his associates. It was then known as Cosby's Manor. 
Sir William Cosby served originally as colonel in the British 
army, then, after being governor of Minorca and later of the Leeward 
Islands, he was sent to New York. Before leaving England, he ob- 
tained a good deal of money for colonizing expenses, and his refusal 
to share this with Van Dam, his predecessor and colleague, gave 
rise to a law suit between the two which came to nothing but was the 
cause of much bitterness between Cosby and his friends on the one 
hand, and Van Dam and the people's party on the other. His admin- 
istration was turbulent and unpopular. The grant made to Cosby 
was one of a number of colonizing ventures made by the British 
government during this period. 




Washington and Genesee Streets, Utica, in 1825 
Washington Street, with the Presbyterian Church, is seen on the left ; the bridge 
across the Erie Canal is seen on the right, down Genesee Street, and at its ex- 
tremity the depot of the Utica and Schenectady (now the New York Central) Rail- 
road, then recently built. 



During the Seven Years' War a palisaded fort was 
erected on the south bank of the Mohawk at the ford where 
Utica later sprang up. It was named Ft. Schuyler in honor 
of Col. Peter Schuyler, an uncle of Gen. Philip Schuyler of 
the Continental Army. 

This should not be confused with the fort of the same name at 
Rome which was built later. In order to distinguish the two, the fort 
at Utica is often referred to as Old Ft. Schuyler. 

The main trail of the Iroquois which became later the 
most used route to the western country, crossed the Mohawk 
here and continued to Ft. Stanwix, now Rome. A branch 
trail turned slightly to the southwest, then more directly west 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 71 

to Oneida Castle. Cosby's Manor was sold at a sheriff's sale 
for arrears of rent in 1792 and was bid in by Gen. Philip 
Schuyler, Gen. John Bradstreet, John Morin Scott and others 
for £1387 (about 15 cents an acre). The first bridge across 
the Mohawk at Utica was built in 1792. Soon after the close 
of the War of Independence, a large number of new settlers 
arrived, most of them Germans from the lower Mohawk Val- 
ley. About 1788 there was an influx of New Englanders, 
among whom was Peter Smith (1768-1837), later a partner 
of John Jacob Astor, and father of Gerrit Smith, a political 
and religious radical, who was born here in 1797. 

After graduating from Hamilton College in 1818, Gerrit Smith 
(1797-1874) assumed the management of the vast estate of his father, 
and greatly increased the family fortune, but he soon turned his at- 
tention to reform and philanthropy. He first became an active tem- 
perance worker, and then, after seeing an anti-slavery meeting at 
Utica broken up by a mob, took up the cause of abolition. He was 
one of the leading organizers of the Liberty party (1840), and later 
was nominated for president by various reform parties, notably the 
Free Soil Party (1848 & 1852). He was likewise the candidate of the 
anti-slavery party for governor of New York in 1840 and 1858. In 
1853 he was elected to Congress as an independent, whereupon he 
issued an address declaring that all men have an equal right to the 
soil; that wars are brutal and unnecessary; that slavery could not 
be sanctioned by any constitution, state or federal; that free trade is 
essential to human brotherhood; that women should have full political 
rights, and that alcoholic liquors should be prohibited by state and 
federal enactments. He resigned at the end of his first session and 
gave away numerous farms of 50 acres each to indigent families; 
attempted to colonize tracts in Northern N. Y. with free negroes; 
assisted fugitive slaves to escape — Peterboro, his home village, 22 
miles southwest of Utica, became a station on the "Underground 
railroad" — and established a nonsectarian church, open to all Chris- 
tians of whatever shade of belief, in Peterboro. He was an intimate 
friend of John Brown of Osawatomie, to whom he gave a farm in 
Essex County. His total benefactions probably exceeded $8,000,000. 

Utica is situated on ground rising gradually from the 
river. There are many fine business and public buildings, 
especially on Genesee St., the principal thoroughfare, and the 
city is known for the number of its institutions, public and 
private. It has some fine parks. In the Forest Hill Ceme- 
tery are the graves of Horatio Seymour and Roscoe Conkling. 

Horatio Seymour (1810-1886) was a member of the N. Y. Assem- 
bly (1842-1845), Mayor of Utica (1843) and Governor of the State 
(1854-1855). In 1854 he vetoed a bill prohibiting intoxicating liquors 
in the state. In 1863-1865 he was again governor and opposed Lin- 
coln's policy in respect to emancipation, military arrests and con- 
scription. He was nominated as the Democratic presidential candi- 
date against Grant in 1868, but carried only eight states. He died at 
Utica at the home of his sister, who was the wife of Roscoe Conkling. 



72 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888) was a lawyer and political leader 
who attracted attention in public life because of his keenness and 
eloquence in debate, his aggressive leadership, and his striking per- 
sonality. He was born in Albany and was admitted to the bar at 
Utica in 1850.- Having joined the Republican party at the time of its 
formation, he served for several years as representative in Congress, 
and in 1867 was elected senator from N. Y. He labored for the im- 
peachment of President Johnson and was one of the senatorial 
coterie that influenced Grant. He was disappointed in his ambition 
to be nominated for president in 1876, and in 1880 he was one of the 
leaders of the unsuccessful movement to nominate Grant for a third 
presidential term. 

Here also is the famous Oneida stone of the Oneida In- 
dians, on which the warriors used to have their ears slit to 
prepare them for battle, and on which, too, they used to place 
the scalps of their enemies. The stone was brought here 
from Oneida Castle. 

Utica has varied and extensive manufactures (17,000 em- 
ployees), with a total annual output of about $60,000,000. 
Among its products are hosiery and knit goods, cotton goods, 
men's clothing, foundry products, plumbing and heating ap- 
paratus, lumber products, food preparation, boots and shoes, 
and brick, tile and pottery, as well as a number of others. 
Utica is the shipping point for a rich agricultural region, 
from which are shipped dairy products (especially cheese), 
nursery products, flowers (especially roses), small fruits and 
vegetables, honey and hops. 

We pass on the right, a short distance north of the river, 
the picturesque Deerfield Hills, a beginning of the scenic 
highlands which stretch away towards the Adirondack Mts. 
Fifteen miles north of Utica on West Canada Creek, are Tren- 
ton Falls,* which descend 312 feet in two miles through a 
sandstone chasm, in a series of cataracts, some of them having 
an 80-foot fall. The falls are reached on the branch line of 
the New York Central leading from Utica to the Adirondacks. 

244 M. ORISKANY, Pop. 1,101. (Train 51 passes 1:30; 
No. 3, 2:39; No. 41, 6:56; No. 25, 7:49; No. 19, 11:17. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 3:36; No. 26, 4:21 ; No. 16, 9:36; No. 22, 
11:32.) The battle of Oriskany, an important minor engage- 
ment of the Revolutionary War, was fought in a little ravine 
about 2 M. west of Oriskany, Aug. 6, 1777. Two days before, 
Gen. Nicholas Herkimer had gathered about 800 militiamen at 
Ft. Dayton (on the site of the present city of Herkimer) for 
the relief of Ft. Schuyler which was being besieged by British 
and Indians under Col. Barry St. Leger and Joseph Brant. 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 



73 



On the 6th, Herkimer's force, on its march to Ft. Schuyler, 
was ambushed by a force of 650 British under Sir John John- 
son and 800 Indians under Joseph Brant, in the ravine west 
of the village. The rear portion of Herkimer's troops es- 
caped from the trap, but were pursued by the Indians, and 
many of them were overtaken and killed. Between the re- 
mainder and the British and Indians there was a desperate 
hand-to-hand conflict, interrupted by a violent thunderstorm, 

Plate xcr. 




i/X-isK^sL'.- 



North America as It Was Known in 1768 
This map was first printed in the First Edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica 
in 1768. Note that all of Canada west of Hudson's Bay (including Alaska) and a 
section of the United States west of Lake Superior and as far south as the present 
states of South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon were then "Parts Undis- 
covered." The central part of the continent was New France, and the extreme 
southwest was New Spain. Considering the meagre geographical knowledge of the 
day, the map was remarkably accurate. 

with no quarter shown by either side. About this time a 
sortie was made from Ft. Schuyler and the British withdrew, 
after about 200 Americans had been killed and as many taken 
prisoner. The loss of the British was about the same. Gen. 
Herkimer, though his leg had been broken by a shot at the 
beginning of the action, continued to direct the fighting on 



74 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

the American side, but died on Aug. 16 as a result of the 
clumsy amputation of his leg. 

Before the engagement, Gen. Herkimer, realizing that the British 
had a superior force, pleaded for delay, hoping for a signal that the 
American forces at Ft. Schuyler were ready to co-operate in the 
battle. His subordinate officers, however, retorted that they "came 
to fight, not to see others fight" and finally accused Herkimer of 
being a "Tory and a coward." Gen. Herkimer, thoroughly enraged, 
gave the order to march. 

The battle, though indecisive, had an important influence 
in preventing St. Leger from effecting a junction with Gen. 
Burgoyne, which would have materially assisted the latter's 
intention to cut off New England from the rest of the col- 
onies. An obelisk on the hill to the left marks the spot where 
the battle took place. 

251 M. ROME, Pop. 26,341. (Train 51 passes 1:37; 
No. ?, 2:47; No. 41, 7:07; No. 25, 7:57; No. 19, 11:23. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 3:28; No. 26, 4:15; No. 16, 9:28; No. 22, 
11 :24.) The portage at this place, between the Mohawk River 
and Wood Creek (to the northwest), which are about a mile 
apart, gave the site its Indian name, De-i-wain-sta, "place 
where canoes are carried from one stream to another," and its 
earliest English name, "The Great (or Oneida) Carrying 
Place." Its location made it of strategic value as a key be- 
tween the Mohawk Valley and Lake Ontario. Wood Creek 
flows into Oneida Lake, and thus formed part of a nearly 
continuous waterway from the Hudson to the Great Lakes. 
Two primitive forts were built in 1725 to protect the carrying 
place, but these were superseded by Ft. Stanwix, erected about 
1760 by Gen. John Stanwix, at an expense of £60,000. The 
first permanent settlement dates from this time. In Oct. and 
Nov. of 1768, Sir William Johnson and representatives of Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania met 3,200 Indians of the Six Nations 
here and made a treaty with them, under which, for £10,460 
in money and provisions, they surrendered to the crown their 
claims to what is now Kentucky, West Virginia and the 
western part of Pennsylvania. 

This treaty, the last great act of Sir William Johnson, probabljr 
averted another Indian war. Great preparations were made for feast- 
ing the Indians who attended the council. It is said that 60 barrels 
of flour, 50 barrels of port, 6 barrels of rice and 70 barrels of other 
provisions were sent to the meeting place. There was a prolonged 
period of speechmaking, but the treaty was finally signed on Nov. 
5, 1768. One of the features of this treaty was the sale to Thomas 
Penn (1702-1775) and Richard Penn (i706-1771), second and third sons 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 75 

of William Term (founder of Pa.), of the remaining land in the prov- 
ince of Pa., to which they claimed title. This transaction involved 
i2,000 of the total payment made to the Indians. 

The fort was immediately dismantled, but was repaired 
by the Continentals after 1776 and renamed Ft. Schuyler, in 
honor of Gen. Philip Schuyler and so is sometimes confused 
with Old Ft. Schuyler at Utica. The 3rd Regiment of New 
York line troops under Col. Peter Gansevoort, occupied the 
fort in 1777. The first U. S. flag made according to the law 
of June 14, 1777, was raised over Ft Schuyler on Aug. 3rd 
of that same year, one month before the official announcement 
by Congress of the design of the flag, and was almost imme- 
diately used in action. The first fight under the colors was 
the battle of Oriskany in which the soldiers of the fort be- 
came involved. 

The basic idea of the present flag was evolved by a committee 
composed of George Washington, Robert Morris, and Col. George 
Ross with the assistance of Betsy Ross. The flag made by Mrs. 
Ross, though it is sometimes referred to as the first U. S. flag, was 
actually prepared as a tentative design or pattern for submission to 
Congress. On the 14th of June, 1777, Congress resolved "that the 
flag of the U. S. be thirteen stripes, alternates red and white, that the 
Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new con- 
stellation." This was the original of the national flag. The flag at 
Ft. Stanwix was a hasty makeshift put together under direction of 
Col. Marinus Willet, who found it difficult to obtain materials be- 
cause the fort was hemmed in by the British. In his diary Col. Willet 
relates that "white stripes were cut out of an ammunition shirt; the 
blue out of a camlet cloak taken from the enemy at Peekskill, while 
the red stripes were made of different pieces of stuff procured from 
one and another of the garrison." 

After the War of Independence, three commissioners for 
the U. S. made a new treaty with the chiefs of the Six Na- 
tions at Ft. Schuyler (1784). In 1796 a canal was built across 
the old portage between Wood Creek and the Mohawk. In 
the same year the township of Rome was formed, receiving 
its name, says Schoolcraft, "from the heroic defence of the 
republic made here." The country surrounding Rome is de- 
voted largely to farming, especially vegetables, gardening and 
to dairying. Among the manufactures are brass and copper 
products, wire for electrical uses, foundry and machine-shop 
products, locomotives, knit goods, tin cans and canned goods 
(especially vegetables). 

264 M. ONEIDA, Pop. 10.541. (Train 51 passes 1:53; 
No. 3, 3:05; No. 41, 7:25; No. 25, 8:12; No. ip, 11:42. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 3:15; No. 26. 4:02; No. 16, 9:11 ; No. 22, 
11 :10.) The city of Oneida is comparatively modern, but the 



76 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



village of Oneida Castle across the river to the south dates 
back to the time when this was the chief settlement of the 
Oneida Indians, who moved here about 1600 from the site of 
what is now Stockbridge in the same county. 




Samuel de Champlain 
Samuel de Champlain (1567-1635), 
born at the little port Brouage in the 
Bay of Biscay, made his first trip to 
Canada in 1603, and five years later 
established the first white settlement 
at Quebec. In the spring he joined 
a war party of Algonquin? and Hurons, 
discovered the great lake that bears his 
name, and with his arquebus took an 
important part in the victory which 
his; savage friends obtained over the 
Iroquois. In 1615, with another ex- 
pedition of Indians, he crossed the 
eastern ends of Lakes Huron and On- 
tario and made a fierce but unsuccess- 
ful attack on an Onondaga town near 
Lake Oneida. Parkman says : "In 
Champlain alone was the life of New 
France. By instinct and temperament 
he was more impelled to the adven- 
turous toils of exploration than to the duller task of building colonies.. The profits 
of trade had value in his eyes only as a means to these ends, and settlements were 
important chiefly as a base of discovery. Two great objects eclipsed all others — 
to find a route to the Indies and to bring the heathen tribes into the embrace of the 
Church, since, while he cared little for their bodies, his solicitude for their souls 
knew no bounds." 

The name Oneida is a corruption of the name Oneyotka-ono or 
"people of Stone," in allusion to the Oneida stone, a granite boulder 
near Oneida Castle which was held sacred by this tribe of the Iro- 
quois. An early traveler who visited the castle in 1677 wrote that 
the "Onyades have but one town, doubly stockaded, of about one hun- 
dred houses." The rest of the tribe lived around Oneida Lake, in the 
region southward to the Susquehanna. They were not loyal to the 
Iroquois League's policy of friendliness to the English, but inclined 
towards the French, and were practically the only Iroquois who fought 
for the Americans in the War of Independence. As a consequence 
they were attacked by others of the Iroquois under Joseph Brant and 
took refuge within the American settlements till the war ended, when 
the majority returned to their former home, while some migrated to 
the Thames River district, Ontario. Early in the 19th century they 
sold their lands, and most of them settled on a reservation at Green 
Bay, Wis., some few remaining in N. Y. State. The tribe now num- 
bers more than 3,000, of whom about two-thirds are in Wisconsin, a 
few hundred in N. Y. State and about 800 in Ontario. They are 
civilized and prosperous. 

The history of the modern city of Oneida goes back to 
1829, when the present site was purchased by Sands Higin- 
botham, who is regarded as the founder of the town and in 



ALBANY TO SYRACUSE 77 

honor of whom one of the municipal parks is named. In the 
southeastern part of the city is the headquarters of the Oneida 
Community, originally a communistic society but now a busi- 
ness corporation, which controls important industries here, at 
Niagara Falls and elsewhere. 

The Oneida Community was founded in 1847 by John Humphrey 
Noyes (1811-1866), and attracted wide interest because of its pecuniary 
success and its peculiar religious and social principles. Noyes was 
originally a clergyman, but broke away from orthodox religion to 
found a sect of his own in Putney, Vt, where he lived. This sect 
was known as the "Association of Perfectionists" and formed the 
nucleus of the community which Noyes later established at Oneida. 
The principles of the new community were based on the idea that 
true Christianity was incompatible with individual property, either in 
things or in persons. Consequently the new community held all its 
property in common. Marriage in the conventional sense of the word 
was abolished. The community was much interested in the question 
of race improvement by scientific means, and maintained that at least 
as much scientific attention should be given to the physical improve- 
ment of human beings as is given to the improvement of domestic 
animals. The members claimed to have solved among themselves 
the labor question by regarding all kinds of service as equally honor- 
able, and respecting every person in accordance with the develop- 
ment of his character. 

The members had some peculiarities of dress, mostly confined, 
however, to the women, whose costumes included a short dress and 
pantalets, which were appreciated for their convenience if not for 
their beauty. The women also adopted the practice of wearing short 
hair, which it was claimed saved time and vanity. Tobacco, intoxi- 
cants, profanity, obscenity, found no place in the community. The 
diet consisted largely of vegetables and fruits, while meat, tea and 
coffee were served only occasionally. 

For good order and the improvement of the members, the com- 
munity placed much reliance upon a very peculiar system of plain 
speaking they termed mutual criticism. Under Mr. Noyes' supervi- 
sion it became in the Oneida Community a principal means of dis- 
cipline and government. 

The community had its first financial success when it undertook 
the manufacture of a steel trap invented by one of its members. Later 
the community engaged in a number of other enterprises, both agri- 
cultural and manufacturing. In the meantime they were subjected to 
bitter attacks on account of the radical beliefs of its members, espe- 
cially regarding marriage. Noyes, the founder, recognized that in 
deference to public opinion it would be necessary to recede from their 
social principles, and accordingly the community was transformed 
into a commercial corporation in 1881. 

Among the manufactures of Oneida are furniture, silver- 
plated ware, engines and machinery, pulley, steel vaults and 
hosiery. About 6 M. to the northwest is Oneida Lake, a small 
lake of considerable beauty, 18 M. long and 5 M. wide. 



78 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



Syracuse to Buffalo 

290 M. SYRACUSE, Pop. 171,717. (Train 51 passes 
2:31; No. 5, 3:45; No. 41, 8:10; No. 25, 8:50; No. /o, 12:25. 
Eastbound : No. 6 passes 2 :40 ; No. 26, 3 :28 ; No. 16, 8 :30 ; No. 
22, 10:35.) The Syracuse region first became known to Euro- 
peans through its salt deposits along the shore of Onondaga 
Lake which had been discovered and used by the Indians. 




Champlain's Attack on an Iroquois Fort 
(From Champlain's "Nouvelle France," 1619) 
Of this Indian fort, which stood near Lake Oneida, Champlain says: "Their 
village was enclosed with strong quadruple palisades of large timber, 30 ft. high. 
interlocked the one with the other, with an interval of not more than half a foot 
between them ; with galleries in the form of parapets, defended with double pieces 
of timber, proof against our Arquebuses, and on one side they had a pond with 
a never-failing supply of water, from which proceeded a number of gutters which 
they had laid along the intermediate space, throwing the water without and rendering 
it effectual inside for extinguishing fire." 



Syracuse lies within the ancient tribal headquarters of the Onon- 
daga Indians, one of the six tribes forming the League of the Iro- 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 79 

quois. Their territory extended northward to Lake Ontario and 
southward to the Susquehanna River. They were the official 
guardians of the council fire of the Iroquois, and their chief town, 
near the site of the present Onondaga (a few miles south of Syra- 
cuse) consisted of some 140 houses. This was in the middle of the 
17th century, when the tribe was estimated as numbering between 
1,500 and 1,700. Later the tribe divided, some of them migrating to 
the Catholic Iroquois settlements in Canada. About 500 Onondagas 
still live on a reservation south of Syracuse. 

Although situated in a favorable trading location at the 
foot of the valley of Onondaga Creek where the latter joins 
Onondaga Lake, no settlement was made here until several 
years after the close of the War of Independence. The first 
white settler was Ephraim Webster, who built a trading post 
near the mouth of the creek in 1786. The village grew slowly. 
Between 1800 and 1805 a dozen families settled here, and the 
place received the name of Bogardus's Corners from the name 
of the proprietor of a local inn. In order to obtain money 
for the construction of a public road, the state government, 
which had assumed control of the salt fields, sold in 1809 some 
250 acres embracing the district now occupied by Syracuse's 
business centre to Abraham Walton of Albany for $6,550 — 
about $26.50 an acre. The town went under various names — 
Milan, South Saline, Cossitt's Corner, etc. — until 1824 when 
the present name was adopted. In 1818 Joshua Forfnan 
bought an interest in the Walton tract, had a village plotted 
and became the "founder" of the city. 

Several political events of national importance have oc- 
curred in Syracuse. The Free Soil movement in N. Y. be- 
gan at the Democratic State convention held here in 1847, 
when the split occurred between the "Barnburner" and 
"Hunker" factions of the Democratic party. 

These factions grew out of a dispute over questions involving 
the Erie Canal. The "Barnburners" were the radical element, deter- 
mined to oust the "reactionaries" in office no matter at what cost to 
the party, and were given their name from the old instance of the 
Pennsylvania farmer who burned his barns to get rid of the rats. 
The "Barnburners" opposed the extension of the Erie Canal and, after 
1846, the extension of slavery in the Territories. The "Hunkers," 
conservative and influential, were so called from the Dutch "honk," 
which signifies "station" or "home." Thus, "honker" or "hunker" 
meant one who "stayed put," and was opposed to progress. 

The famous "Jerry Rescue," manifesting the strong anti- 
slavery sentiment in Syracuse, took place in 1851, following 
the enactment of the Fugitive Slave Law in 1850. 

In the winter of 1849-50 an intelligent slave arrived in Syracuse 
traveling from Mississippi to Canada. He decided to remain, and 
after having for a while worked under Charles F. Williston, a cabinet 



80 THE GREATEST HTGHWAY TN THE WORLD 

maker, he opened a little shop of his own. On Oct. 1, 1851, the slave- 
hunters pounced on him and shut him up in a building then standing 
on the site of what is now known as the Jerry Rescue Block. When, 
later in the day he was taken before William H. Sabine, the United 
States Commissioner, the room was so crowded that Jerry, taking 
advantage of the fact, succeeded in making a break for freedom. 
Running eastward, he was pursued, captured in a hole near the rail- 
way tunnel, and taken back to the police office. By the time evening 
came, the fever of the mob was high, and Democrats and Whigs joined 
in planning the slave's rescue. A crowd gathered and soon upon 
walls and doors fell the blows of stones, axes, and timbers until the 
unhappy captors in the police office were concerned not for Jerry's 
retention, but for their own safety. One of them jumped from a 
window on the north side of the building, and broke his arm in the 
fall. Finally the official who had immediate charge of Jerry, pushed 
him out into the arms of the rescuers, saying: "Get out of here, you 
damned nigger, if you are making all this muss." The slave was 
safely hidden in the city for ten days, and then driven on the first 
stage of his journey to Canada, where he found at length a haven. 
The act was in bold defiance of the law, and 18 of the Jerry rescue 
party were indicted, though never convicted. For some years, Jerry's 
rescue was celebrated annually in Syracuse. 

Present day Syracuse is built on high ground in an 
amphitheatre of hills surrounding Onondaga Lake — a beauti- 
ful body of clear water 5 M. long and \y 2 M. wide at its 
broadest point. James St. in the northeastern part of the 
city is a fine residence" street, and the principal business thor- 
oughfare is Saline 5t. The most noteworthy parks in Syra- 
cuse are Barnet Park (100 acres) on high land in the western 
part of the city, and Lincoln Park, occupying a heavily wooded 
ridge to the east. 

Syracuse University, with a campus of 100 acres, is sit- 
uated on the highlands in the southeastern part of the city 
where it commands a fine view of Onondaga Lake. The uni- 
versity was opened in 1871, when the faculty and students 
of Genesee College (1850) removed from Lima, N. Y., to Syra- 
cuse ; one year later the Geneva medical college likewise re- 
moved to Syracuse and became part of the university. The 
university has a number of excellent buildings and a fine 
athletic field. It is a co-educational institution under control 
of the Methodist Episcopal Church. There are about 4,000 
students. The N. Y. State Fair, a civic event of considerable 
importance, takes place yearly (in Sept.) in grounds situated 
on the western border of the city. The "plant" covers 100 
acres and there is an excellent race track where famous horses 
are run. 

Salt works were established in Syracuse as early as 1788 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 81 

and the production of salt and sodium derivatives still con- 
stitutes an important industry. 

For many years Syracuse was the principal seat of the salt indus- 
try in the United States, but the development of salt deposits in other 
parts of N. Y. State and in Michigan caused a decline in the Onon- 
daga product, though Syracuse still produced 2,000,000 bushels of 
salt a year. The Onondaga deposits were mentioned in the journal 
of the French Jesuit Lemoyne in 1653, and before the Revolutionary 
War the Indians marketed salt at Albany and Quebec. In 1788 the 
state undertook, by treaty with the Onondaga Indians, to care for 
the salt springs and manage them for the benefit of both the whites 
and the Indians. By another treaty (1795) the state bought the salt 
lands, covering about 10 Sq. M., paying the Indians $1,000 outright, 
supplemented by an annual payment of $700 and 150 bushels of salt. 
Subsequently the state leased the lands, charging at various times a 
royalty of 4 to \2 l / 2 cents a bushel. It was stipulated in 1797 that the 
lessees should not sell the product for more than 60 cents a bushel. 
In 1898, after the royalty had been reduced to 1 cent a bushel, the 
state ordered the sale of the salt lands because the revenue was less 
than the expense of keeping up the works. The actual sale, however, 
did not take place till 1908. Annual production reached its highest 
point in 1862, with 9,000,000 bushels. 

The salt deposits supplied the basis for the manufacture 
of soda-ash, and at the village of Solvay, adjoining Syracuse 
on the west, is one of the largest factories for this purpose 
in the world. Besides soda-ash it produces bicarbonate of 
soda, caustic soda and crystals, the total output being about 
1,000 tons daily. Syracuse ranks among the leading cities of 
the state in the number and variety of its manufactures. 
There are 760 establishments employing 25,000 workers, with 
an annual output of the value of about $75,000,000. The man- 
ufacture of typewriters is an important industry (annual pro- 
duction $10,000,000). Other products include automobiles and 
accessories, tool steel, candles, farm implements, clothing, 
chinaware, cement, chemicals and mining machinery. 

348 M. PALMYRA, Pop. 2,480. (Train 51 passes 3:38; 
No. 3, 4:57; No. 41, 9:30; No. 25, 9:56; No. 19, 1:42. East- 
bound: No. 6 passes 1:25; No. 26, 2:17; No. 16, 6:46; No. 22, 
9:14.) The town of Palmyra is intimately connected with the 
early history of the Mormons or "Church of Jesus Christ of 
Latter-Day Saints." Joseph Smith (1805-1844), the founder, 
lived a few miles south of Palmyra at the village of Man- 
chester, near which, in the "hill of Cumorah," he said he found 
the plates of gold upon which was inscribed the book of Mor- 
mon. Smith had the book printed in 1830 in Palmyra. 

Joseph Smith was born at Sharon, Vt, Dec. 23, 1805, irom which 
place in 1815 his parents removed to N. Y. State, settling first 



82 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



near Palmyra and later at Manchester. Both his parents and grand- 
parents were superstitious, neurotic, seers of visions, and believers 
in miraculous cures, heavenly voices and direct revelation. The boy's 
father was a digger for hidden treasure, and used a divining rod to 
find the proper place to dig wells. He taught his son crystal gazing 
and the use of the "peepstone" to discover hidden treasure. Young 
Joseph was good-natured and lazy. Early in life he began to have 
visions which were accompanied by epileptic "seizures." One night 
in 1823, according to his story, the angel Moroni appeared to him 
three times, and told him that the Bible of the western continent, 
the supplement to the New Testament, was buried on a hill called 
Cumorah, now commonly known as Mormon Hill. It was not until 
1827, however, that he discovered this new Bible. Smith's story was 



Joseph Smith Preaching 
(From an old Mormon print) 
Joseph Smith (1805-1877) early be- 
gan to gather his proselytes about him, 
and even succeeded in interesting a 
few bewildered Indians, but the new 
sect had great difficulties, aggravated, 
it is said, by the licentiousness of the 
founder. "Persecuted" in N. Y. State, 
Smith sought to found his New Jeru- 
salem in Ohio, where, however, the 
natives objected with such definiteness 
to his way of salvation that he and one 
of hisi followers were tarred and feath- 
ered in Hiram, O. Missouri was chosen 
as the next place of refuge, but here, 
too, Smith's profligacy aroused the 
hostility of the Missourians, which was 
increased by propaganda among the 
Mormons for a "war of extermination 
against the Gentiles." In Illinois, 
whither many of the "Saints" now 
removed, Smith had a revelation ap- 
proving polygamy, which pleased him 
very much, but which roused opposi- 
tion among his followers as well as 
his persecutors. In 1844 he and his 
brother Hyrum were arrested on a 
charge of treason in the town of Nau- 
voo, which they had founded and im- 
prisoned at Carthage. On the night of 
June 27, a mob, with the collusion of 
the militia guard, broke into the jail and shot the two men dead. In 
time there had arisen a leader of considerable genius, Brigham Young ( 
who probably saved the sect from dissolution, and led them to Salt 
in 1844. 




the mean- 
1801-1877), 
Lake City 



that on the 22nd of September of that year, he dug up on the hill 
near Manchester a stone box in which was a volume 6 inches thick 
made of thin gold plates, 8 inches by 8 inches, fastened together by 
three gold rings. The plates were covered with small writing in 
characters of the "reformed Egyptian tongue." With the golden book 
Smith claimed he found a breastplate of gold and a pair of super- 
natural spectacles, consisting of two crystals set in a silver bow, by 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 



83 



the aid of which lie could read the mystic characters. Being himself 
unable to read or write fluently, Smith dictated a translation of the 
book from behind a screen. Soon afterwards, according to Smith, the 
plates were taken away by the angel Moroni. 

370 M. ROCHESTER, Pop. 295,750. (Train 51 passes 
4:05; No. 3, 5:25; No. 41, 9:56; No. 25, 10:23; No. 19, 2:11. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 12:59; No. 26, 1:51; No. 16, 6:18; 
No. 22, 8:47.) Rochester is built around the Falls of the Gen- 
esee River, about 7 M. above the place where the river emp- 
ties into Lake Ontario. 

The Genesee River rises in Pennsylvania and flows nearly 200 
miles in a northerly direction through western New York. Within a 
distance of 7 M. between Rochester and Lake Ontario the river has a 




Rochester in 1812 
Settlers from New England made a clearing at the site of Rochester about 1810, 
but growth was slow until the railroad — now the New York Central — was built 
connecting it with Albany and Buffalo. 



fall of 263 ft. The principal falls consist of three cataracts, 96, 26 
and 83 ft., respectively. The banks of the first fall, which is in the 
heart of the city, rise to a height of 200 ft. above the river. The river, 
in fact, cuts through the center of the city in a deep gorge, the banks 
of which vary in height from 50 to 200 ft. The Genesee Valley south 
of Rochester is a very fertile and beautiful stretch of country where 
the river flows between meadows that rise gradually to high hills. 
The appearance of the country here, with its immense pasture-land 
dotted with oak and elm, is distinctly English. Besides being ex- 
ceedingly productive both for crops and pasturage, the Genesee Val- 



84 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

ley is famous as riding country, although the hunting interest has of 
late somewhat waned. But foxes are still found, and the flats along 
the river give wonderful opportunities for the chase. 

The modern city, however, has spread north until it now 
embraces the large village of Charlotte on the western side 
of the mouth of the river. The region about Rochester was 
visited about 1650 by Jesuit missionaries who worked among 
the Seneca Indians in the neighborhood, and in 1687 the 
Marquis de Denonville fought a battle with the Iroquois near 
the Falls. 

The Senecas were members of the League of the Iroquois and 
eventually became one of the most important tribes of that league. 
Their territory lay between the Seneca Lake and the Genesee River 
and they were the official guardians of the league's western frontier. 
At the height of their power they extended their range to the coun- 
try west of Lake Erie and south along the Alleghany River to Penn- 
sylvania. They fought on the English side in the War of Independence. 
About 2,800 are now on reservations in New York State. 

Jacques Rene de Bresay, marquis of Denonville, succeeded La 
Barre, who succeeded Frontenac, as governor of Canada in 1689. 
La Barre, an inefficient leader against the insurgent Iroquois, held 
the administration for only one year. Denonville was of great cour- 
age and ability, but in his campaign against the Indians treated them 
so cruelly that they were angered, not intimidated. The terrible 
massacre of the French by the Iroquois at Lachine, Quebec, in 1689, 
must be regarded as one of the results of his expedition. In 1687 
he built Fort Denonville, which was abandoned during the following 
year when an epidemic wiped out its garrison. 

Although by 1710 the French had established a post on 
Inmdequoit Bay not far from the mouth of the Genesee, it 
was not until Ebenezer Allan (called "Indian Allan") built 
a small saw and grist mill near the falls that a settlement be- 
gan to grow up. In 1802 three Maryland proprietors, Charles 
Carroll, William Fitzhugh and Nathaniel Rochester acquired 
a large tract of land which included the site of the present city. 
Rochester, from whom the city took its name, established a 
settlement, largely of New Englanders, at the falls in 1810-12, 
but growth was slow, as it was not at that time on the direct 
road between Albany and Buffalo, and the region was malarial. 

Nathaniel Rochester (1752-1831) was a native of Virginia. He 
had been a manufacturer of Hagerstown, Md., and after settling in 
Rochester in 1818 was elected to the N. Y. Assembly (1822). 

The completion of the Rochester and Lockport section of 
the Erie Canal gave Rochester the impetus which made it a 
city, and the building of the railroad a few years later placed 
it on the direct route between the Hudson and Lake Erie. 

The course of the old Erie Canal lay through the heart of the 
city. It crossed the Genesee River by means of an aqueduct of seven 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 85 

arches, 850 ft. long, with a channel 45 ft. wide. The aqueduct cost 
$600,000. The new barge canal passes through the city about three 
miles south of the old canal, and has a harbor in connection with the 
Genesee River, which is dammed for that purpose. 

Rochester, between 1828 and 1830, was the centre of the 
anti-Masonic movement and here Thurlow Weed published his 
Anti-Masonic Enquirer. 

The Anti-Masonic party arose after the disappearance in 1826 of 
William Morgan (1776-1826), a Freemason of Batavia, N. Y., who had 
become dissatisfied with the order and had planned to publish its 
secrets. When his purpose became known, Morgan was subjected to 
frequent annoyances, and finally in September, 1826, he was seized 
and conveyed by stealth to Ft. Niagara, where he disappeared. His 
ultimate fate was never known, though it was believed at the time 
that he had been murdered. The event created great excitement, and 
furnished the occasion for the formation of a new party in N. Y. 
This new party was in fact a rehabilitation of the Adams wing of the 
Democratic-Republican party, a feeble organization, into which shrewd 
political leaders breathed new life by utilizing the Anti-Masonic feel- 
ing. The party spread into other middle states and into New Eng- 
land; in 1827 the N. Y. leaders tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade Henry 
Clay, though a Mason, to renounce the order and become the party's 
candidate for president. In 1831 the Anti-Masons nominated William 
Wirt of Maryland, and in the election they secured the seven electoral 
votes of Vermont. In the following year the organization grew mori- 
bund, most of its members joining the Whigs. Its last act im national 
politics was to nominate William Henry Harrison for president in 
Nov. 1838. 

Subsequently, Rochester became the centre of the Aboli- 
tionist movement in New York State and for many years be- 
fore the Civil War it was a busy station on the "Underground 
railroad," by which fugitive slaves were assisted in escaping 
to Canada. The fervor of the movement gave prominence 
to Frederick Douglass (1817-1895), the mulatto orator and 
editor, who established a newspaper in Rochester in 1847, and 
to whom a monument has been erected near the approach of 
the New York Central Station. The city was a gathering 
place for suffragists from the time when Susan B. Anthony 
settled here in 1846. 

Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906), born at Adams, Mass., was 
the daughter of Quaker parents. Her family moved to N. Y. State 
where, from the time she was 17 until she was 32, she taught school. 
She took a prominent part in the Anti-slavery and Temperance move- 
ments in New York, and after 1854 devoted herself almost exclu- 
sively to the agitation for women's rights. She was vice-president- 
at-large of the National Women's Suffragist Association from 1869- 
1892, when she became president. She was arrested and fined $100 
(which she never paid) for casting a vote at the presidential election 
in 1872. She contended that the 14th Amendment entitled her to 
vote, and when she told the court she would not pay her fine, the 
judge simply let her go. The case created much comment. 



86 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

In Rochester also lived the famous Fox Sisters, Margaret 
(1836-1893) and Katharine, whose spiritualistic "demonstra- 
tions" became known in 1850 as the "Rochester Rappings," 
The city has been a centre for American spiritualists ever 
since. 

Modern spiritualism is generally dated from the "demonstrations" 
produced by the Fox Sisters. These exhibitions consisted of the 
usual spiritualistic phenomena: table turning, spirit rapping and the 
moving of large bodies by invisible means. The sisters gave public 
seances through the country, and interest in spiritualism spread to 
England. In 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture, which 
she later retracted. She claimed to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent 
Kane, the Arctic explorer, and published a book of his letters under 
the title of the "Love Life of Dr. Kane." Kane had begun his career 
as an explorer when he was appointed surgeon and naturalist for 
the Grinnell expedition in 1850, which set out to search for Sir John 
Franklin, who was lost somewhere in the North. After spending 16 




Kate Fox 

(From a daguerreotype) 

The demonstrations of the famous 
Fox sisters began in the following 
way: In 1847 the Fox family moved to 
a house near Rochester believed to be 
haunted, from which tenant after ten- 
ant had moved out, alarmed by myste- 
liuus rappings. The Foxes did not 
hear these sounds until 1848, and then 
Kate, hardly more than a child, began 
questioning the rappings, and having 
opened what seemed to be intelligent 
communication, suggested the use of 
the alphabet. That was the beginning 
of what spiritualists call the "science of 
materialization.'' The exhibitions con- 
sisted of the usual phenomena, table 
turning, spirit rapping and the moving 
of large bodies by invisible means.. 
The two young women gave public 
seances throughout the country, arous- 
ing an interest that spread to Eng- 
land. Tn 1888 Margaret made a confession of imposture, which she later retracted. 
Claiming to be the wife of Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the Arctic explorer, -he published 
a hook of Hi s letters under the "Love Life of Dr. Kane." He had met her between 
voyages of exploration, fallen in love with her, and in one of the published letters 
addressed her a-- "my wife.'' hut even she admits that there never was a formal 
wedding. He died at Havana in 1857, 



fruitless months of search, they returned, but Kane fitted out a new 
expedition of which he was given command, and spent two winters in 
polar exploration and collection of scientific data. The voyage lasted 
years and brought him fame. It was between these voyages that 
he met Margaret Fox, and in one of the published letters lie addressed 
her as "my wife," though there seems never to have been a formal 
wedding. He died in 1857 at Havana. 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 



87 



Rochester is an attractive city, with a park system com- 
prising - 1,649 acres. The largest parks are the Durand- 
Eastman, the Genesee Valley, Seneca, Maplewood and High- 
land. The Durand-Eastman Park occupies a beautiful tract 
of wooded ground on Lake Ontario. 

The University of Rochester, founded 1851 as a Baptist 
institution, but now non-sectarian, occupies a tract of 24 acres 
on University Ave. in the eastern part of the city. Notable 
men who have been connected with the university include 
Henry Augustus Ward, professor of natural history from 1860 
to 1875 ; Martin Brewer Anderson, president from 1854 to 
1888, and David Jayne Hill, president from 1888 to 1896. 

David Jayne Hill was born at Plainfield, N. J., June 16, 1850. 
After obtaining his first degree at the University of Bucknell, Pa., 
he studied for his A. M. in Berlin and Paris. He was president of 
the University of Rochester from 1888 to 1896, then spent 3 years in 
the study of the public law of Europe. As one peculiarly fitted by 
education and training for a diplomatic career, he was minister first 
to Switzerland (1903-1905), then to the Netherlands (1905) and from 
1908 to 1911 ambassador to Germany. His numerous writings cover 
a wide field in biography, rhetoric, diplomacy, history and philosophy. 




Falls of the Genesee River at Rochester About 1850 
(From a print in the N. Y. Public Library) 
For many years Rochester was the most important flour milling centre in the 
country, owing to the valuable water power furnished by the falls and the fertility 
cf the wheat fields of the Genesee Valley. 



88 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Rochester Theological Seminary prepares students for the 
ministry of the Baptist Church, and has no organic connec- 
tion with the university. The Mechanics' Institute, founded 
in 1885 by Henry Lomb of the Bausch-Lomb Optical Co., is 
an unusually successful school of trades and handicrafts. It 
occupies a large building, the gift of George Eastman of the 
Eastman Kodak Co. 

For many years Rochester was the most important flour 
milling centre in the country, owing to the valuable water 
furnished by the falls and the fertility of the wheat fields of 
the Genesee Valley. Flour milling is no longer so important 
an industry here — Minneapolis having taken first rank in this 
respect — but Rochester ranks high among the great manufac- 
turing cities of the country. Its total output is valued at more 
than $250,000,000 annually. It leads the world in the manu- 
facture of cameras, lenses, and photographic materials, and it 
is one of the principal cities of the country in the distribution 
of seeds, bulbs and plants, and in the manufacture of cloth- 
ing and shoes. Other important products are machinery of 
various kinds, lubricating oil, candied fruits, syrups and con- 
fectionery, clothing, tobacco and cigars, enameled tanks and 
filing devices. 

403 M. BATAVIA, Pop. 13,541. (Train 5/ passes 
4:45; No. 3, 6:18; No. 41, 10:45; No. 25, 11:04; No. 19, 3:03. 
Eastbound: No. 6 passes 12:17; No. 26, 1:12; No. 16, 5:32; 
No. 22, 8:04.) Batavia, situated on Tonawanda Creek, was 
laid out in 1801 by Joseph Ellicott (1760-1826), the engineer 
who had been engaged in surveying the land known as the 
"Holland Purchase" of which Batavia was a part. 

The so-called "Holland Purchase" comprised nearly all the land 
in Western N. Y. west of the Genesee River. Its history is associated 
with Robert Morris (1734-1806), the Revolutionary merchant and 
banker whose financial assistance had been invaluable to the Colonies 
during the War of Independence. Morris acquired the Holland Pur- 
chase from the Indians in 1791, after having obtained permission from 
the State of Mass. which then claimed sovereignty over this terri- 
tory. The following year, however, he began to be involved in finan- 
cial misfortunes and was compelled to sell this property to a group 
of Dutch capitalists, who undertook to dispose of the land to settlers. 
It thus became known as the Holland Purchase, and the Holland Land 
Office in Batavia was one of the centers from which the operations 
of the Dutch Land company were directed. The slow development 
of Morris's other property and the failure of a London bank in which 
he had funds invested, finally drove him into bankruptcy, and he was 
confined in a debtor's prison for more than three years (1798-1801). 
The old Holland Land Office was dedicated as a memorial to Robert 
Morris in 1894. 



SYRACUSE TO BUFFALO 89 

Here lived William Morgan whose supposed murder in 
1826 by Freemasons led to the organization of the Anti- 
Masonic party. Batavia was the home of Dean Richmond 
(1804-1866), a capitalist, successful shipper and wholesale 
dealer in farm produce, who became vice-president (1853- 
1864) and later president (1864-1866) of the New York Cen- 
tral Lines. He was likewise a prominent leader of the Demo- 
cratic party in N. Y. State. In 1899 his widow, Mary E. 
Richmond, erected here in memory of a son a library which 
contains about 15,000 volumes. 

Among the education institutions here are the N. Y. 
State School for the Blind and St. Joseph's Academy (Roman 
Catholic). The historical museum in the old Holland Land 
Office* contains a good collection of early state relics. The 
two old guns in front were cast in the N. Y. State Arsenal, 
which manufactured arms for use in the War of 1812. 

Among the manufactures are harvesters, ploughs, thresh- 
ers, and other agricultural implements, firearms, rubber tires, 
shoes, shell goods, paper-boxes, and inside woodwork. 

We new approach Buffalo, beyond which our route closely 
parallels Lake Erie. We thus get our first view of one of 
America's great inland seas in this part of the route, although 
at certain points between Syracuse and Buffalo (notably at 
Rochester) our train has passed only a few miles south of 
Lake Ontario. 

The five Great Lakes — Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and On- 
tario — lie between the U. S. and Canada and form the headwaters of 
the St. Lawrence River system. They cover an area of 94,000 Sq. M. 
The Great Lakes date back to Glacial period or before, but it is 
probable that a "warping" of the earth's crust and a consequent re- 
versal of drainage areas have been among the most potent causes of 
the formation of these great inland seas. Some of the most salient 
facts about the Great Lakes are given in the following table: 

The Great Lakes 

Michi- On- 
Superior gan Huron Erie tario 
360 307 206 241 193 

160 118 101 57 53 

1,012 870 750 210 738 

32,060 22,336 22,978 9,968 7,243 

602 581 581 572 246 

735 1,200 470 350 230 



Greatest Length (M.) . 
Greatest Breadth (M.) . 
Deepest Soundings (Ft.) 

Area (Sq. M.) 

Above sea level (Ft.) . 
U. S. shore line (M.) . 



The population of the states and provinces bordering on the 
Great Lakes is estimated to be 50,000,000 or more. In Pennsylvania 
and Ohio, south of Lake Erie, there are large coal fields. Surround- 
ing Lake Michigan and west of Lake Superior are vast grain growing 
plains, and the prairies of the Canadian northwest are constantly in- 



90 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



creasing the area and quantity of wheat grown; while both north and 
south of Lake Superior are the most extensive iron mines in the 
world, from which approximately 55,000,000 tons of ore are shipped 
annually. The Great Lakes provide a natural highway for the ship- 
ment of all these products. 

Buffalo to Cleveland 

439 M. BUFFALO, Pup. 506,775. (Train 51 arrives 
5:30; No. ?, passes 7:15; No. 41, 11:45; No. 25, 11:51; No. ip, 
3:55. Eastbound: No. 6 passes 11:31; No. 26, 12:27; No. 
16, 4:35; No. 22, 7:15.) French trappers and Jesuit mission- 
aries were the first white men to visit the site of Buffalo, and 




Port of Buffalo on Lake Erie, 1815 



near here, on the east bank of the Niagara River at the mouth 
of Cayuga Creek, La Salle in 1679 built the "Griffin," with 
which he sailed up the Great Lakes to Green Bay, Wis. He 
also built Ft. Conti at the mouth of the river, but this was 
burned in the following year. Seven years later the marquis 
of Denonville in behalf of the French built here another fort, 
the predecessor of the various fortifications in this locality 
which were subsecpiently called Ft. Niagara. 

Although the neighborhood was the scene of various op- 
erations during the War of Independence, not a single white 
settler was living on the site of the present city when the 
federal constitution was adopted in 1787, and the town was 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 91 

not laid out till after the second presidency of Washington. 
In 1801 Joseph Ellicott, sometimes called the "Father of 
Buffalo," plotted the site for a town, calling- it New Amster- 
dam, but the name of Buffalo Creek or Buffalo proved more 
popular. Ellicott was the agent of a group of Dutch capital- 
ists, called the Holland Land Co., who purchased a large 
tract of land for speculative purposes in the neighborhood of 
Buffalo (1792). 

At an early period (1784) the present site of the city of Buffalo 
had come to be known as the "Buffalo Creek region," either from 
the herds of buffalo or bison, which, according to Indian tradition, 
had frequented the salt licks of the creek, or more probably for some 
Indian chief. 

During the War of 1812 Buffalo was a frontier town, 
and, owing to its position on Lake Erie, very close to an im- 
portant theater of operations. The first gun of the war is 
said to have been fired on Aug. 13, by a battery at Black 
Rock, then a rival, now a suburb of Buffalo, and shortly aft- 
erwards British soldiers from the Canadian garrison at Ft. 
Erie (directly across the Niagara River from Buffalo) made 
a raid into Buffalo harbour and captured the schooner "Con- 
necticut." The Americans replied with a brilliant exploit in 
which Lieut. Jesse D. Elliott (1782-1845) crossed the river 
and captured the "Detroit" and the "Caledonia" under the 
guns of Ft. Erie. 

The ruins of Ft. Erie are among the most picturesque features of 
the region about Buffalo. The fort was captured in 1814 by an Amer- 
ican force under Gen. Winfield Scott, and was held by the Americans 
till the end of the war, despite the efforts of a British besieging force 
to dislodge them. At the close of hostilities the Americans blew up 
the fort. 

In the following spring (1812) five of the gunboats used 
by Capt. Perry at the Battle of Lake Erie were fitted out in 
the harbour at Buffalo. Perry's victory, however, did not 
save the little settlement from an attack in Dec. of that year 
in which Gen. Sir Phineas Riall and a force of 1,200 British 
and Indians captured the town and almost completely de- 
stroyed it. After the war the town was rebuilt, and grew 
rapidly. In 1818, near where La Salle in 1679 built his little 
sailing vessel, the "Griffin," a group of N. Y. capitalists com- 
pleted the "Walk-in-the-Water," the first steamboat on the 
Great Lakes. The completion of the Erie Canal, seven years 
later, with Buffalo as its western terminus, greatly increased 
the city's importance. At Buffalo in 1848 met the Free Soil 
convention that nominated Martin Van Buren for the presi- 
dency and Charles Francis Adams for the vice-presidency. 



92 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Grover Cleveland lived in Buffalo from 1855 until 1884, when 
he was elected president. 

Stephen Grover Cleveland (1837-1908) was born, fifth in a family 
of nine children, in the town of Caldwell, Essex County, N. J. He 
came of good colonial stock, but the death of his father prevented 
his receiving a college education. About 1855 he drifted westward 
with $25 in his pocket, and not long afterward began to read law in 
a law office in Buffalo, where he was admitted to the bar in 1859. 
He was assistant district attorney of Erie County, of which Buffalo 
is the chief cit}', in 1863, was elected sheriff on the Democratic ticket 
in 1869, and mayor of Buffalo in 1881, although the city was normally 
Republican. As mayor he attracted wide attention by his independ- 
ence and business-like methods — qualities which distinguished his 
entire career. After his election as governor in the following year, 
the Democratic party chose him as their candidate against James G. 
Blaine. He was the first Democrat to be elected president for 24 
years. His administration was marked by firmness and justice; he 
stood staunchly by the new civil service law, and during his first term 
vetoed 413 bills, more than two-thirds of which were private pension 
bills. He vigorously attacked the high tariff laws then in effect, but 
the administration tariff bill was blocked by his Republican oppo- 
nents. In 1888 Cleveland was defeated for re-election by Benjamin 
Harrison, but in 1892 he was again nominated and defeated President 
Harrison by a large majority. The most important event of his sec- 
ond administration was the repeal of the silver legislation which had 
been a growing menace for 15 years. The panic of 1893 was accom- 
panied by an outbreak of labor troubles, the most serious of which 
was the Pullman strike at Chicago (1894). When Gov. Altgeld of 
Illinois failed to act, President Cleveland sent troops to Chicago to 
clear the way for mail trains, and the strike was settled within a 
week. He also acted decisively in the Venezuela affair, with the 
result that Great Britain agreed to arbitrate on terms which safe- 
guarded the national dignity on both sides. At the end of his term, 
Cleveland retired to Princeton, N. J. 

The Pan-American Exposition in celebration of the prog- 
ress of the Western Hemisphere in the 19th century, was 
held here May 1-Nov. 2, 1901. It was during- a reception in 
the Temple of Music on the Exposition grounds that Presi- 
dent McKinley was assassinated on Sept. 6. He died at the 
home of John A. Milburn, the president of the exposition. 

President McKinley's assassin was Leon Czolgosz, a young man 
of Polish parentage, who shot the president with a revolver at close 
range. For a while it was thought that the president would recover, 
but he collapsed and died on Sept. 14, 1901. Czolgosz professed to 
belong to the school of anarchists who believe in violence. He was 
executed in October, 1901. 

Buffalo today has broad and spacious streets and a park 
system (1,229 acres) of unusual beauty. The largest park is 
Delaware Park (362 acres), on the north side of the city. 
This park is adjoined on the south by the Forest Lawn Ceme- 
tery which contains monuments to Millard Fillmore and the 
Indian chief "Red Jacket." 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 



93 



Millard Fillmore (1800-1874), 13th president of the U. S., was 
born in East Aurora, a little village 14 M. from Buffalo, and prac- 
ticed law in Buffalo. He served several terms as member of Con- 
gress, and in 1848 was elected vice-president on the Whig ticket, 
with Zachery Taylor as president. President Taylor died July 9, 
1850, and on the next day Fillmore took the oath of office as his 
successor. He favored the "Compromise Measures," designed to 
pacify the South, and signed the Fugitive Slave Law. In 1852 he 
was an unsuccessful candidate for nomination for the presidency at 
the Whig National Convention. 

Red Jacket (1751-1830) was a famous Seneca chief and friend of 
the whites. He was faithful to the whites when approached by 
Tecumseh and the "Prophet" in their scheme to combine all of the 
Indians from Canada to Florida in a great Confederacy. In the War 
of 1812, he assisted the Americans. By many he was considered the 
greatest orator of his race. 




The /*'(/ // ,-/'j V. iGARA 



Prcr///r<' of AVw York 



A Colonial Print (1762) in the N. Y. Public Library 

To the west of the park are the grounds of the Buffalo 
State Hospital for the Insane. Overlooking the lake on a 
cliff 60 ft. high, is the park known as "The Front," the site 
of Ft. Porter, which has a garrison of U. S. Soldiers. 

The University of Buffalo, organized in 1845, has about 
1,000 students and comprises schools of medicine, law, den- 
tistry and pharmacy. Other educational institutions of Buf- 
falo are the Canisius College, a Roman Catholic (Jesuit) in- 
stitution for men, and the Martin Luther Seminary, a Theo- 



94 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

logical seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Buf- 
falo has several fine public buildings, including the Albright 
Art Gallery (white marble), the Buffalo Historical Society 
Building (in Delaware Park), the Public Library (valued at 
$1,000,000), and the City Hall and County Building ($1,500,- 
000). Since 1914 Buffalo has been under the commission 
form of government. 

Almost equidistant from Chicago and N. Y. C, the city 
of Buffalo, by reason of its favorable location in respect to 
lake transportation and its position on the principal northern 
trade route between the East and the West, has become one 
of the important commercial and industrial centres in the 
Union. Originally, the harbour was only the shallow mouth 
of the Buffalo River, but it has been greatly enlarged and 
improved by extensive federal work. The Welland Canal, 
about 25 M. west of Buffalo, connects Lake Erie with the 
St. Lawrence River. The annual tonnage of the port of 
Buffalo is upwards of 20,000,000 tons. The total export trade 
is close to $100,000,000. Besides being the first port in the 
country in handling horses, sheep, cattle and hogs, it re- 
ceives immense quantities of lumber, pig iron and ore and 
has more than a score of huge grain elevators with a capacity 
of about 30,000,000 bushels. 

In the manufacturing field it has two great advantages : 
a supply of natural gas and almost unlimited electric power 
from Niagara Falls. Its total annual output is valued at 
approximately $400,000,000, and its manufactures include 
meat packing, foundry and machine shop products, flour, 
steel, linseed oil, railroad cars, clothing, chemicals, furniture, 
automobiles, jewelry, confectionery and tobacco. 

Buffalo is connected with the Canadian shore by ferry 
and by the International Bridge, completed in 1873 at a cost 
of $1,500,000. 

Niagara Falls, while it is not on the main route to Chi- 
cago, is best reached from Buffalo, from which it is only 32 
miles distant, and travellers so easily can stop over to make 
the little side trip that it is virtually a part of the journey 
westward. 

Niagara Falls. Of the seven natural wonders of the 
American world, which are given as Yellowstone Park, Gar- 
den of the Gods, Mammoth Cave, Niagara Falls, the Natural 
Bridge, Yosemite Valley, and the Giant Trees of California, 
by far the greatest spectacle is Niagara. The name means 
"thunder of the waters," and was given by the early Indians 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 95 

who regarded the falls with a quite comprehensible religious 
awe. Today there are more than a million and a half visitors 
annually. 

Probably the first white man to discover the Falls was 
Etienne Brule, an associate and trusted comrade of Champlain ; 
but the first chronicler and the man to whom honour of dis- 
covery is usually given, is Father Hennepin, founder of the 
monastery at Ft. Frontenac in Quebec, who in 1678 joined 
La Salle's Mississippi expedition, and pushing on a few days 
journey ahead of his commander, came upon the wonderful 
waters described in his Louisiane Noiivcllc (1698). The 
French built some trading posts here and their influence pre- 
vailed until 1759, when the British, driving the French north- 
ward, overthrew their fortifications and took possession of 
the land. When the Revolution broke out some years later, 
the Indians, terrible and unscrupulous wagers of guerilla 
warfare, fought on the British side. 

The Niagara River, upon which the Falls are situated, 
22 M. from its head in Lake Erie, and 14 M. from its mouth 
in Lake Ontario, forms the outlet of four of the five Great 
Lakes (Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior). It descends 
about 330 ft. in its course of 36 M. About 15 M. from 
Lake Erie the river narrows and the rapids begin. In the 
last three quarters of a mile above the falls, the water de- 
scends 55 ft. and the velocity is enormous. The basin of the 
Falls has a depth of from 100 to 192 ft. During cold win- 
ters the spray covers the grass and trees in the park along 
the cliff with a delicate veneer of ice, while below the Falls 
it is tossed up and frozen into a solid arch. Adjoining the 
left (Canadian) bank is the greater division, Horseshoe Fall, 
155 ft. high and curving to a breadth of 2,600 ft. The Amer- 
ican Fall, adjoining the right bank, is 162 ft. high and about 
1,400 ft. broad. In recognition of their aesthetic value the 
province of Ontario and the State of New York have reserved 
the adjacent land as public parks. In the midst of the 
Rapids lies a little group of islands, among them the famous 
Goat Island. Besides the wonderful view it affords, its west- 
ern end gives a unique example of absolutely virgin forest. 

The Indians used to fish and hunt, crossing the Rapids on foot 
and supporting their steps with tall wooden poles spiked with iron. 
The necessity, on one occasion, of saving two marooned comrades 
on the island, taught them this means of crossing, which they had 
never before attempted. 

The Niagara River runs half its length on an upper plain, 
then drops at the falls into a narrow gorge through which 



96 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

it courses seven miles to the escarpment, the crest of which 
is a bed of limestone — 60 ft. thick at the falls. The water 
plunges into a deep basin hollowed out of soft shale, which, 
as well as the escarpment, is being- constantly worn away. 
The site of the cataract retreats upstream and the gorge is 
lengthened at a rate of about five ft. a year. It is evident 
that the whole gorge has been dug out by the river, and many 
attempts have been made to determine the time consumed in 
the work. The solution of the problem would aid in estab- 
lishing a relation between the periods and ages of geologic 
time and the centuries of human chronology. The Horse- 
shoe Fall wore its cliff back 335 ft. in about 63 years. Geolo- 
gists have computed 25,000 years as a lower limit for plausible 
estimates of the river, but have been able to set no upper 
limit. 

The Canadian and American shores are connected by 
three bridges, one of which a suspension carrying all classes 
of traffic, is 1.240 ft. long. The flow of water in the river 
averages 222,000 cubic ft. per second, though it sometimes 
falls as low as 176,000 cubic ft. 

On March 29, 1848, Niagara ran dry, and persons walked in the 
rocky channel bed of the American Rapids between Goat Island and 
the mainland. This phenomenon, never known before or since, was 
due to these facts. Lake Erie was full of floating ice flowing to its 
outlet, the source of Niagara River. During the previous afternoon 
a heavy northeast wind had driven the ice back into the lake, and 
during the night the wind, suddenly veering, blew a gale from the 
west which forced the ice floe sharply into a mass in the narrow 
channel of the river, where it froze. Thus, when the water on the 
lower side of the barrier drained off, the Niagara River and the 
American Fall were dry, and the Canadian Fall a mere trickle. This 
extraordinary condition lasted for a whole day. 

Thus the descent of this stream at the Falls and in the 
Rapids just above them gives in theory a water-power of 
nearly 4,000,000 hp., three-fourths of which is estimated as 
available. 

This maximum could be obtained only by sacrificing the beauty 
of the Falls — in fact diverting the river from its channel so that the 
cataract as a scenic feature would be destroyed. To combat this 
commercial vandalism an association for the protection of the Falls 
has been formed. 

There were before 1918 several companies with power- 
producing plants, the largest of which was the Niagara Falls 
Hydraulic Power and Manufacturing Company. 

This company had made an extensive beginning in utilization 
of the water fall by a tunnel 29 ft. deep and 18 ft. wide, passing about 
200 ft. below the surface of the city from a point 1% M. above the 
Falls to the upper steel arch bridge. 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 97 

In 1918, when added power was needed for the more 
rapid production of war materials, the various companies 
consolidated with the Niagara Falls Power Company. In 
May of that year the intake from the Niagara River and the 
hydraulic canal were deepened, and three hydro-electric units 
— the largest in the world today — were installed, with the 
result that an extension of 100,000 hp. was developed, making 
the total of the station 250,000 hp. 

510 M. DUNKIRK, Pop. 19,366. (Train j passes 8:23; 
No. 41, 1:00; No. 25, 12:45; No. 19, 4:57. Eastbound: No. 6 
passes 10:24; No. 26, 11:26; No. 16, 3:10; No. 22, 6:08.) 
Dunkirk, settled about 1805, has a fine harbour and extensive 
lake trade, and lies, moreover, in fertile agricultural and grape- 
growing country. The property of the town, assessed at 
$10,000,000 is chiefly in factories producing locomotives, ra- 
diators, and other steel and iron products, wagons, silk gloves, 
and concrete blocks. There are several pleasant parks, of 
which Gratiot and Washington are the largest. Brocton 
(519 M.) and Westfield (526 M.) are junctions for travellers 
bound for Chautauqua (about 20 M. south of Brocto 1 on 
Chautauqua Lake), the principal seat of the Chautauqua edu- 
cational movement. 

The Chautauqua movement, instituted more than 46 years ago 
in the west, has here its largest station. Each summer 15,000 or 
20,000 people from all over the country assemble here to take courses 
in a great variety of subjects, from Italian Primitivism to Camp 
Cookery. Chautauqua makes its chief appeal, perhaps, to the middle- 
aged and elderly who in their youth were working too hard to have 
had any opportunities for study. 

Just beyond Ripley (534 M.) we cross the state line into 
Pennsylvania. 

557 M. ERIE, Pop. 93,372. (Train 3 passes 9:30; No. 
41, 2:06; No. 25, 1 :36; No. ip, 5:59. Eastbound No. 6 passes 
9:25; No. 26, 10:30; No. 16, 2:03; No. 22, 5:08.) Erie stands 
on the site of the old French fort Presque Isle, built in 1753 
and surrounded by a village of a few hundred inhabitants. 
Although Washington protested on behalf of the Governor of 
Va. against the French occupation of this territory, it remained 
in French hands until 1758 when an epidemic of small-pox 
broke out, making the fort untenable. Two years later the 
British seized it, and three years after the Indians, rising 
against their white rulers in the Conspiracy of Pontiac, took 
possession. In 1765 the British recaptured the fort and kept 
it until 1785, when it passed into the possession of the U. S. 
Gen. Anthony Wayne, who was given the task of occupying 



98 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY TN THE WORLD 




the lake posts delivered up by the English, came here soon 
after to negotiate the famous 
treaty of Greenville with the 
Indians in 1795. He died in 
1796 at Erie. 

Certain hostile tribes in north- 
west of Ohio who had defeated 
Gen. St. Clair in 1791, sent away 
in scorn a mission asking per- 
mission for white men to 
settle beyond the Ohio (1793). 
Wayne, angry at this insolence, 
gathered together some troops 
of the recently organized Ameri- 
can army and after having given 
the Indians one more chance of 
a peaceable settlement, defeated 
them thoroughly in the battle of 

Fallen Timbers, 80 miles north of Cincinnati. By the resulting treaty 
of Greenville, he opened up the northwest to civilization. 

In spite of the necessary severity of the punishment meted 
out to the Indians by the new government through the agency 
of Wayne, no part of Washington's administration, domestic 
or foreign, was more original or more benign than the policy 
he constantly urged toward them. To save them from the 
frauds of traders a national system of trade was adopted, and 
a number of laws were passed to protect them from the aggres- 
sions of borderers, as well as to secure them in the rights 
allowed them in their treaties. 

The battle of Lake Erie (1813) was closely associated 
with the city. Here were Perry's headquarters during the 
War of 1812, and here he built in less than six months many 
of the vessels with which he won his naval victory over the 
British. 

Erie is now an important manufacturing centre, the prod- 
ucts of which are valued at between $40,000,000 and $50,- 
000,000. A large branch of the General Electric Co. is here, 
besides important factories for flour and grist mill products, 
paper and wood pulp, organs, petroleum, etc. The leading 
articles of shipment are lumber, coal, grain and iron ore. 
Over 1,400 ships a year enter and clear the broad, land- 
locked harbour. On a bluff overlooking lake and city, is the 
State Soldiers' and Sailors' Home, and nearby, a monument 
to Gen. Wayne. Between Springfield (577 M.) and Con- 
neaut we cross the state line into Ohio. 

584 M. CONNEAUT, Pop. 9,000. (Train ? passes 
10:08; No. 41, 2:39; No. 25, 2:04; No. 19, 6:34. Eastbound: 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 99 

No. 6 passes 8:50; No. 26, 9:59; No. 16, 1:20; No. 22, 4:32.) 
The first permanent settlement was made here in 1799 though 
a preliminary surveying party composed of Moses Cleaveland, 
the founder of the city of Cleveland, and 50 associates, two 
of whom were women, had arrived in 1796 and found 20 or 
30 cabins of the Massauga tribe. \ 

In his journal Cleaveland gives a description of the arrival here, 
"on the creek Conneaugh, in New Connecticut Land," July 4, 1796. 
"We gave three cheers," he continues, "and christened the place Ft. 
Independence, and, after many difficulties, perplexities and hardships 
were surmounted and we were on the good and promised land, felt 
that a just tribute of respect to the day ought to be paid. There 
were in all, including women and children, 50 in number. The men 
under Capt. Tinker, ranged themselves on the beach and, fired a 
Federal Salute of 15 rounds, and then the 16th in honor -of New 
Conn. Drank several toasts. Closed with three cheers. Drank 
several pints of grog. Supped and returned in good order." 

After the whites had established themselves, the Indians 
were driven out for having murdered a settler. The country 
of Ashtabula in which Conneaut stands was not only the first 
settled on the Western Reserve, but the first in Northern 
Ohio, and the town is sometimes called the "Plymouth" of 
the Western Reserve. 

Conneaut, which means in the Seneca language "many 
fish," is built at the mouth of Conneaut Creek in what is now 
a thriving agricultural and dairying region on Lake Erie. 
Besides being an excellent harbour to which coal and ore 
are shipped, the city has flour and planing mills, tanneries, 
canneries, and other factories. 

595 M. ASHTABULA, Pop. 22,082. (Train 3 passes 
10:29; No. 41, 3:06; No. 23, 2:19; No. 19, 6:50. Eastbound : 
No. 6 passes 8:34; No. 26, 9:44; No. 16, 1:00; No. 22, 4:16.) 
Settlers were attracted to the site of the present town of Ash- 
tabula (an Indian word said to mean "fish river") in 1801 by 
the excellent harbour here, formed by the mouth of the! Ashta- 
bula River. The city is built on the high bank of the river 
about 75 ft. above the lake and commands some fine views. 
There are large green-houses under glass from which forced 
fruit and vegetables are shipped to Pittsburgh and other 
large cities. It is the centre of a prosperous agricultural 
and dairying region which has been largely settled by Finns. 

Ashtabula is one of the most important ports in America 
for the shipment of iron ore and coal. Iron ore especially, 
is brought here in enormous quantities by boat and 'trans- 
shipped to Pittsburgh. The shipyards and drydocks in the 
harbour, and the huge machines for loading coal and unload- 



100 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

ing ore are of great interest. The city has large manufac- 
tories of leather, worsted goods, agricultural implements, and 
foundry and machine shop products ; and the total value of 
its output is close to $10,000,000 annually. 

602 M. GENEVA, Pop. 3,081. (Train 3 passes, 10:44; 
No. 41, 3:18; No. 25, 2:29; No. 19, 7:03. Eastbound : No. 6 
passes 8:22; No. 26, 9:32; No. 16, 12:39; No. 22, 4:02.) Ge- 
neva is built close to the site of the early Indian village of 
Kanadasaga, burnt in 1779. 

In that year Gen. Sullivan was despatched at the head of an 
expedition against the Indians of Western N. Y., who had taken 
arms for the British and had been guilty of the terrible Wyoming 
and Cherry Valley massacres. Kanadasaga was one of the Indian 
"council hearths" destroyed, and tribes in this region were driven 
westward, never to recover their old power. 

In addition to the lake, there are good mineral springs. 
According to Duncan Ingraham, a Massachusetts traveller 
who wrote an account of a journey in 1792, the town then 
consisted "of about 20 log houses, three or four frame build- 
ings, and as many idle persons as can live in them." Some 
of these old houses along the main street are of pure Colo- 
nial type, and really beautiful. Hobart College, founded in 
1822, is situated here. Malt, tinware, flour, stoves, wall-pa- 
per, etc., are manufactured, and there are also extensive nurs- 
eries. 

622 M. PAINESVILLE, Pop. 7,272. (Train ? passes 
11:06; No. di, 3:40; No. 25, 2:46; No. 19. 7:27. Eastbound: 
No. 6 passes 8:05; No. 26, 9:16; No. 16, 12:18; No. 22, 3:42.) 
Painesville was founded in 1800 by settlers from Conn, and 
N. Y., the chief among whom was Gen. Edward Paine (1746- 
1841), an ex-officer of the Continental Army. It contains one 
of the early women's colleges of the country — Lake Erie Col- 
lege, founded in 1859 as the successor to Willoughby Sem- 
inary at Willoughby, Ohio, the buildings of which were burned 
in 1846. 

The history of this part of the State includes early epi- 
sodes of Mormonism. In Painesville was published a book 
by E. D. Howe purporting to show that "the historical part 
of the book of Mormon" was plagiarized from a romance 
called The Manuscript Found written by Solomon Spalding of 
Conneaut (about 1809). This claim has not been fully veri- 
fied by later research. 

Nine miles southwest of Painesville at Kirtland was one 
of the early settlements made by Joseph Smith and his Mor- 



BUFFALO TO CLEVELAND 101 

mon followers. They built here a $40,000 temple (still stand- 
ing), a teacher's seminary and a bank. The bank failed and 
Smith had to leave the state to avoid the sheriff. Most of 
his disciples followed him to Missouri. At Mentor (which 
we now pass 4 M. west of Painesville) lived Sidney Rigdon, 
who later became one of the Mormon leaders. 

Rigdon (1793-1876) began his preaching career as a Baptist, 
then helped in establishing a society called the "reformers," and 
before being converted to Mormonism was pastor of a church in 
Mentor. He became a Mormon leader, and published a new trans- 
lation of the Bible, with inserted prophecies of the coming of Joseph 
Smith. With Hyrum and Joseph Smith and Brigham Young, he 
moved westward in 1831 preaching, being "persecuted" and establish- 
ing an occasional temple. At Far West, a town in Missouri where 
the Mormons established themselves in 1838, Rigdon preached his 
"salt sermon," from the Matt. V. 13, urging his hearer to wage a 
"war of extermination" against all who disturbed them. Following 
his advice, the Mormons involved themselves in such broils with 
the "gentiles" that the state militia was called out against them. 
Smith and Rigdon were arrested, but the former escaped custody 
and with 15,000 followers, fled to Illinois. When the latter was 
freed, he joined the "Saints" in the city of Nauvoo which they had 
founded and was made a professor at their university. After Smith's 
arrest and murder by a mob in 1849 and the breaking up of Nauvoo, 
Rigdon disputed with Young for Smith's place. Not only failing 
to secure it, but being in addition tried for treason in wanting it, the 
disciple of Mormon returned to the East and spent his last days at 
Friendship, N. Y. Howe, in the book mentioned above, asserted 
that Sidney Rigdon was the original "author and proprietor of the 
Mormon conspiracy." 

Near Mentor, also is Lawnfield, the former home of 
James A. Garfield. 

James Abram Garfield (1831-1881), 20th president of the U. S., 
was born in a log cabin at Orange, Ohio, and began life as a farm 
hand. He attended for a time the Western Reserve Eclectic In- 
stitute, afterwards Hiram College, finally entering Williams College 
from which he graduated, becoming a teacher of ancient languages 
and literature. Entering politics as a Republican, he was elected to 
the Ohio Senate in 1859. His Civil War record was striking, and 
he was made major-general for gallantry at the battle of Chicka- 
mauga. He was elected to Congress in 1863, where he attracted at- 
tention as a hard worker and ready speaker, and where later he be- 
came leader of the Republican party in the House. He was an advo- 
cate of drastic measures against the South and considered Lincoln's 
policies too lenient. At the presidential convention of the Repub- 
lican Party in 1880, he was nominated on the 36th ballot as a com- 
promise candidate, and in the same year was elected president. On 
the 2d of July, 1881, while on his way to attend commencement 
exercises at Williams College, he was shot by Charles G. Giteau, a 
disappointed office seeker who waylaid him in the Washington Rail- 
road Station. He died Sept. 19, 1881, at Elberon, N, J. 



102 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



Cleveland to Chicago 

623 M. CLEVELAND, Pop. 796,836. (Train $ passes 
11:55; No. 41, 4:35; No. 25, 3:30; No. 19, 8:20. Eastbound : 
No. 6 passes 7:20; No. 26, 8:35; No. 16, 11:30; No. 22, 2:56.) 
A trading post was established on the present site of Cleve- 
land as early as 1785 and ten years later Capt. Moses Cleave- 
land, leader of a small band of pioneers and agent of the Con- 
necticut Land Co., surveyed the ground and planted the 
nucleus of the present thriving city — now fifth in size in the 
country. Capt. Cleaveland, in travelling from Connecticut into 
the Northwest, followed closely the present route of the New 
York Central Lines, crossing N. Y. State to Buffalo and then 
from Buffalo alone: the shore of Lake Erie. 



Moses Cleaveland 

Moses Cleaveland (1754-1806) was 
born at Canterbury, Conn., and grad- 
uated from Yale. After serving in the 
U. S. Army, where he attained the 
rank of captain, he practiced law and 
entered the Connecticut legislature. 
Later, he organized the Connecticut 
Land Co., which in 1795 purchased a 
large portion of the Western Reserve. 



At that time the southern shore of Lake Erie was part 
of the famous Western Reserve territory, consisting of 
3,250,000 acres of land, certain parts of which Connecticut 
ceded to her citizens as compensation for their losses from 
"fire and damage" at the hands of the British during the 
Revolutionary War. 1 nese lands were sometimes known as 
"Fire Lands." 

The Western Reserve was a part of the territory immediately 
west of the Pennsylvania line, and extending westward therefrom 
120 M. Connecticut held and "reserved" this territory to herself 
in 1780, when she ceded to the general government all her rights 
and claims to the other lands in the West. Later Conn, ceded the 
Reserve itself, but not before she had sold much of it to the Conn. 
Land Co., and the latter had begun the sale and disposition of all 
the lands so acquired, east of the Cuyahoga River. Until after 1815 




CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 



103 



no lands west of that river were open to entrance or survey, and 
settlers ventured there at their own risk. This was the Indian 
Boundary Line, established in 1795, and beyond it the aborigines had 
exclusive right of occupancy. 

It was for the purpose of surveying - and developing these 
lands that Capt. Cleaveland undertook his expeditions into 
the Western Reserve. The first of these expeditions (1795) 
was composed of 50 men, women and children who arrived 
at Ft. Independence (now Conneaut) on Lake Erie, July 4, 
1796. Pushing on further, they arrived at the present site 
of Cleveland, and in a few days the first log cabin was erected 
at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River. 

To keep the commissary supplied was no easy problem in the 
new settlement. Sometimes they ate boiled rattlesnake in default 




City of Cleveland from Reservoir Walk (1873) 



of anything better. On one occasion, while the little band of set- 
tlers was assembled in prayer in one of the log cabins, someone 
espied a bear swimming across the Cuyahoga River. The coming 
of the bear was looked upon as providential, and the congregation 
suspended the prayer-meeting, killed the bear, and then returned 
to their devotions. 

Capt. Cleaveland's plans for his new settlement were 
ambitious, and he built a number of substantial roads through 
the forests, usually following the old Indian trails, now the 
right of way of the New York Central and other lines. With 
the opening of the Ohio Canal to the Ohio River (1832), 
Cleveland became the natural outlet on Lake Erie for Ohio's 



104 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

extensive agricultural and mineral products. The discovery 
and commercial exploitation (beginning about 1840) of large 
deposits of iron ore in the Lake Superior region placed Cleve- 
land in a strategic position between these vast ore fields and 
the coal and oil resources of Ohio, Pa., and W. Va., and it is 
from this time that the city's great commercial importance 
really dates. 

In 1836 Cleveland had been chartered as a city. The 
name, though chosen in honour of Capt. Cleaveland, had been 
abbreviated to its present form some years before. Tradi- 
tion credits the changed form to a newspaper which left out 
the letter "a" in order to make the word fit a headline. 

The building of the railways during the decade 1850- 
1860, and the stimulus to industry during the Civil War, 
when Cleveland supplied large quantities of iron products 
and clothing to the government, gave impetus to the city's 
growth. With a population of only 1,076 in 1830 and 6,071 
in 1840, Cleveland had become in 1870 a city of 92,829 (more 
than double its population in 1860). Thirty years later 
(1900) the population had grown to 381,768 and in 1920 it 
was 796,836, an increase of 42 per cent over 1910. 

The later history of Cleveland has been distinguished 
for some notable experiments in city planning, popular edu- 
cation and municipal ownership (particularly with respect to 
street railways). The street railway situation had been a 
source of trouble ever since 1899, when a strike of serious 
proportions occurred. Mobs attacked the cars, some of which 
were blown up with dynamite. In 1901 Tom Johnson was 
first elected mayor, and, largely as a result of his advocacy, 
municipal ownership became a greater issue in Cleveland 
than in any other great city in the country. 

Tom Johnson (1854-1911) was a successful business man who 
entered politics on a reform platform. He was an ardent single- 
taxer, and in spite of the fact that he was financially interested in 
street railways, steel plants and other industries, a staunch advocate 
of municipal ownership. He served as mayor of Cleveland for 4 
successive terms (from 1901 to 1909) and was later elected to Con- 
gress. Single Taxers were much pleased by his strategy in getting 
an entire book — Henry George's Progress and Poverty — printed in 
the Congressional Record. 

Johnson and his followers demanded a 3-cent fare on the 
street railways and in 1906 it was actually put into effect. 
The private owners were compelled in 1908 to lease their 
property to a municipal holding company, but in 1910 (after 
Johnson's defeat for re-election in the preceding year), the 
street railway system was leased to a new corporation, the 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 105 

rate of fare under the new arrangement to be based on an 
adequate return to the investors. 

Cleveland was the home of Mark Hanna who became 
famous in national Republican politics. 

Marcus A. Hanna was born in Lisbon, Ohio, in 1837, removed 
with his father in 1852 to Cleveland, where he graduated from West- 
ern Reserve University, and in 1867 entered into partnership with 
his father-in-law (Daniel P. Rhodes) in the coal and iron business. 
Under Hanna's guidance the business prospered enormously, but 
it was not till somewhat late in life that he became prominent in 
Republican affairs in Cleveland. As chairman of the National Re- 
publican Committee in 1896 he managed with great skill the cam- 
paign against Bryan and free silver, and came to be acknowledged 
as a leader of great adroitness, tact, and resource. He entered the 
U. S. Senate from Ohio in 1898, and was one of the principal ad- 
visers of the McKinley administration. He took a vital interest in 
problems affecting labor and capital and was one of the organizers 
in 1901 and first president of the National Civic Federation. He 
died in 1904 at Washington. 

The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce has done much in 
the betterment of local politics. It was also instrumental in 
1902 in securing the adoption of the "Group Plan" by which 
some of the principal public buildings are arranged in a 
quadrangle on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie. Cleveland 
appropriated $25,000,000 to promote the plan. On one side 
of the quadrangle (nearest the lake) are the courthouse and 
city hall ; on the opposite side and 2,000 ft. south are the 
post office and library ($2,500,000). There is to be a Mail, 
600 ft. wide, with public buildings on either side, connecting 
the court-house and city hall with the post office and library. 
The granite buildings forming this quadrangle were designed 
under the supervision of Arnold Brunner, John M. Carrere, 
and D. H. Burnham. 

In education the city has made an innovation known as 
the "Cleveland plan" which seeks to minimize school routine, 
red tape and frequent examinations. Great stress is put on 
domestic and manual training courses, and promotion in the 
grammar schools is made dependent on the general knowl- 
edge and development of the pupil as estimated by a teacher 
who is supposed to make a careful study of the individual. 
There are in Cleveland 120 public schools and 44 public 
libraries. The principal institutions of higher education are 
the Western Reserve University with 2,800 students, St. 
Ignatius College (Roman Catholic), and the Case School of 
Applied Science. 

With its 12 M. of shore line on Lake Erie, a fine park 
system (1,500 acres), and wide residential streets, well shaded 



106 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



by maples and elms, Cleveland possesses many aspects of 
unusual beauty. The city is situated on bluffs rising from 
74 to 200 ft. above the water and commands pleasant views 
'of Lake Erie, while the surface of the plateau upon which 
the town is built is deeply cut by the Cuyahoga River, which 
here pursues a meandering course through a valley half a 
mile wide. Other streams, notably Dean Brook on the east 
border, add to the picturesque character of the municipal 
setting. A chain of parks* connected by driveways follows 
the valley of the Dean Brook, at the mouth of which, on the 
lake front, is the beautiful Gordon Park, formerly the private 




The First Automobile (1798) 
"By means of wheels," says the Third Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica 
(1798), from which this illustration was taken, "some people have contrived car- 
riages to go without horses. One of these [the vehicle to the left] is moved by 
the footman behind it ; and the forewheels, which act as a rudder, are guided by 
the person who sits in the carriage. Between the hind-wheels is placed a box, in 
which is concealed the machinery that moves the carriage. A machine of this 
kind will afford a salutary recreation in a garden or park, or on any plain ground ; 
but in a rough or deep road must be attended with more pain than pleasure. . . . 
Another contrivance for being carried without draught, is by means of a sailing 
chariot or boat, fixed on four wheels, as A/B [the figure to the right], which is 
driven before the wind by the sails C/D and guided by the rudder E. Its velocity 
with a strong wind is said to be so great that it would carry eight or ten persons 
from Scheveling to Putten, which is 42 English miles distant, in two hours." The 
figure in the centre represents a modified sailing vehicle designed to sail against 
the wind as well as with it. 



estate of William J. Gordon, but given by him to the city in 
1893 ; from this extends up the Dean Valley the large Rocke- 
feller Park, given to the city in 1896 by John D. Rockefeller 
and others. It adjoins Wade Park, where are a zoological 
garden and a lake. 

Of the several cemeteries in Cleveland, Lake View (300 
acres), on an elevated site on the east border of the city is 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 107 

the most noteworthy; here are buried President Garfield 
(the Garfield memorial is a sandstone tower 165 ft. high with 
a chapel and crypt at its base), Mark Hanna and John Hay. 

John Hay (1838-1905) was a native of Salem, Ind., and a gradu- 
ate of Brown University. He studied law in the office of Abraham 
Lincoln, and, after being admitted to the bar at Springfield, 111., 
became one of Lincoln's private secretaries, serving until the presi- 
dent's death. He then acted as secretary to various U. S. Legations 
abroad — Paris, Vienna, Madrid — and on returning to America be- 
came assistant secretary of State under W. M. Evarts. President 
McKinley appointed him ambassador to Great Britain in 1897, and 
the following year Secretary of State. Hay was prominent in many 
important international negotiations, such as the treaty with Spain 
( 1898) , the "open door" in China, and the Russo-Japanese peace set- 
tlement. He negotiated the Hay-Pauncefote treaty concerning the 
Panama Canal; also settled difficulties with Germany over the Sa- 
moan question and with Great Britain over the Alaskan boundary. 
As an author, Hay is best known for his Pike County Ballads, in which 
Little Breeches first appeared, and for the monumental life of Lin- 
coln written by Nicolay and himself. 

Other notable monuments in Cleveland are a statue of 
Senator Hanna by Saint Gaudens (in University Circle), a 
marble statue of Commodore Perry in commemoration of the 
battle of Lake Erie (in Wade Park), a soldiers' and sailors' 
monument — a granite shaft rising from a memorial room to 
a height of 125 ft. (in the Public Square), and a bronze statue 
of Moses Cleaveland, the founder of the city (likewise in the 
Public Square). This latter monument is said to stand on 
the very spot selected by Cleaveland for the centre of his new 
settlement. 

The Public Square, or Monumental Park, is in the busi- 
ness centre of the city, about l / 2 M. from the lake and the 
same distance east of the Cuyahoga River. From this park 
the principal thoroughfares radiate. Euclid Ave., once 
famous for its private residences, but now the chief retail 
street of the city, begins at the southeast corner of the square. 
Cleveland's newest residence district is on the heights in the 
eastern part of the city. 

Cleveland sometimes has been called the "Sheffield of 
America." Its prosperity is founded chiefly on its accessibil- 
ity to oil, coal and iron. It is the largest ore market in the 
world. Forty million tons of iron ore valued at $125,000,000 
are received annually in the Cleveland district, and the ore 
docks where much of this ore is handled, are of great inter- 
est. Cleveland also has extensive docking facilities,* said 
to be the finest in the country, for handling its immense trade 
in coal and grain. Cleveland's oil refineries, among the larg- 



108 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



est in the world, receive enormous quantities of crude oil by 
pipe line, rail and water. 

The city has 2,500 manufacturing plants with 125,000 
workers, producing annually goods worth about $375,000,000, 
of which $100,000,000 represents the products of its foundries 
and machine shops. Cleveland is the first city in America 
in the making of wire products and automobile parts, second 
in the manufacture of clothing and sewing machines and one 
of the leading cities in the production of complete automo- 
biles. Shipbuilding (there are five large shipyards* here) 
is likewise an important industry, and Cleveland controls the 
larger share of the tonnage on the Great Lakes. 

673 M. ELYRIA, Pop. 20,474. (Train 3 passes 12:52; 







"Slab Hall," Oberlin College (1832) 

Oberlin College was founded in 1832 "to give equal advantages to whites and 
blacks, and to give education to women as well as to men." Other objects were 
"to establish universal liberty by the abolition of every form of sin" and "to 
avoid the debasing association of the heathen classics and make the Bible a text 
book in all departments of education." The traditions of Oberlin are strongly reli- 
gious, and from Charles Grandison Finney, revivalist and president of the college 
from 1851 to 1866, sprang what is called the "Oberlin Theology," a compound of 
free-will and Calvinism. Before the Civil War the village was a station on the 
"underground railway," and the influence of the college made it a centre of extreme 
abolitionist sentiment. 



Xo. 41, 5:27: X". 25, 4:07: No. /p, 9:12. Eastbound : Xo. 6 
passes 6:22; Xo. 26, 7:57; Xo. 16, 10:34; Xo. 22, 2:04.) Elyria 
was founded about 1819 by Herman Ely in whose honour it 
was named. Ely came from West Springfield, Mass., built a 
cabin on the site of the present town, and later erected the 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 109 

first frame house in the township. The city lies at the junc- 
tion of the two forks of the Black River, each of which falls 
about 50 feet here, furnishing considerable water-power. 
There are sandstone quarries about the town. The chief man- 
ufactures of the city are automobile supplies, telephones, elec- 
tric apparatus, flour, feed, canned goods, machine parts and 
iron pipe ; the annual output is valued at about $10,000,000. 
Eight miles to the southwest is Oberlin (Pop. 5,000), the seat 
of Oberlin College. 

704 M. SANDUSKY, Pop. 22,897. (Train 3 passes 1 :35 ; 
No. 41, 6:12; Xo. 25, 4:44: Xo. /p. 9:55. Eastbound : Xo. 6 
passes 5:38; Xo. 26, 7:13; Xo. 16, 9:45; Xo. 22, 1:16.) Eng- 
lish traders visited Sandusky Bay, upon which the city of San- 
dusky is situated, as early as 1748, and by 1763 a fort had been 
erected for protection against the French and Indians. On 
May 16th of that year, during the Pontiac rising, the Wyandot 
Indians burned the fort. A permanent settlement was estab- 
lished in 1817. 

At the entrance to Sandusky Bay is Cedar Point, with 
a beach for bathing. This is an attractive summer resort. 
Outside Sandusky Bay are a number of islands, most of which 
belong to Ohio, but the largest. Point Pelee, is British. At 
the mouth of the harbour is Johnson's Island, where many 
Confederate prisoners were confined during the Civil War. 
There is a soldiers' and sailors' home here with accommoda- 
tions for 1,600 persons. A few miles farther north are several 
fishing resorts, among them Lakeside and Put-in-Bay (South 
Bass Island), where the government maintains a fish hatch- 
ery. Out of this bay Oliver Hazard Perry and his fleet sailed 
on the morning of Sept. 10, 1813, for the battle of Lake Erie. 

Having worked up in the L T . S. Navy from midshipman to cap- 
tain, during which time he saw service against the Barbary pirates, 
Capt. Oliver Hazard Perry (1785-1819) was at the beginning of the 
War of 1812 placed in command of a flotilla at Xewport. but soon 
transferred to the lakes. There, with the help of a strong detach- 
ment of officers and men from the Atlantic coast, he equipped a 
squadron of a brig, six schooners, and a sloop. In July 1813 he 
concentrated the Lake Erie fleet at Presque Isle (now Erie). In 
Aug. he took his squadron to Put-in-Bay, in South Bass Island. 

On Sept. 10, Perry met the British squadron, under Capt. Bar- 
clay, off Amherstburg, Ont.. in the Battle of Lake Erie. Capt. Bar- 
clay, after a hot engagement in which Perry's flagship, the "Law- 
rence," was so severely shattered that he had to leave her, was 
completely defeated. "The important fact." says Theodore Roose- 
velt, "was that though we had nine guns less [than the enemy] yet at 
a broadside, they threw half as much metal again as our antagonist. 
With such odds in our favor, it would have been a disgrace to have 



110 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

been beaten. The chief merit of the American Commander and his fol- 
lowers were indomitable courage and determination not to be beaten. 
This is no slight merit; but it may well be doubted if it would have 
insured victory had Barclay's force been as strong as Perry's. . . . 
It must always be remembered that when Perry fought this battle 
he was but 27 years old; and the commanders of his other vessels 
were younger still." Another distinction which Perry won on this 
occasion is that he enriched our diction when in writing to Gen. 
Harrison to announce his victory, he said, "We have met the enemy, 
and they are ours." 

Perry commanded the "Java" in the Mediterranean expedition 
of 1815-16 and died of yellow fever at Trinidad in 1819. 

Sandusky had a spacious landlocked harbour, much im- 
proved by government works and its trade in coal, lumber, 
stone, cement, fish, ice, fruit and grape juice is extensive. Its 
manufactures include tools, iron and steel products, chem- 
icals, paper, agricultural implements, lumber products, gaso- 
line engines, dynamos, glass and cement, with a total value 
annually of some $20,000,000. 

757 M. TOLEDO, Pop. 243,109. (Train 3 passes 2:45; 
No. 41, 7:25; No. 25, 5:45; No. 19, 11:05. Eastbound: No. 6 
passes 3:35; No. 26, 5:15; No. 16, 7:30; No. 22, 11.-08.) 1 To- 
ledo was built on the site of Ft. Industry, erected in 1800. It 
lies within an immense tract of land, constituting several res- 
ervations, bought by the U. S. government from several Indian 
tribes in 1795. Upon that part of the tract farthest upstream 
the town of Port Lawrence was laid out in 1807. In 1832 a 
rival company laid out the town of Vistula immediately be- 
low, and a year later the two united and were named Toledo. 

This district was the storm-centre for the more or less 
ridiculous episodes of the "Toledo War" in 1835, a dispute 
over the boundary line between Ohio and Michigan. This 
boundary, named the "Harris Line" (1817) after its surveyor, 
left in dispute a strip of land from 5 to 8 M. wide, a rich 
agricultural region within which lay Toledo. Gov. Lucas of 
Ohio, by authority of the State Legislature (1835), sent three 
commissioners out to re-mark the Harris line so as to include 
the bone of contention. When Gov. Mason, appointed by 
President Jackson as administrator of the territory of Michi- 
gan, heard about this, he dispatched a division of militia to 
occupy Toledo. 

Gov. Mason over-ran all the watermelon patches, stole the 
chickens, burst in the front door of a certain Maj. Stickney's house, 
and proudly carried him off as a prisoner of war, after demolishing 
his ice house. 

1 Note that westbounrl trains here change to Central time ; while eastbound 
trains change to Eastern time at next station (Sandusky). 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 111 

Lucas responded by sending out the Ohio militia who 
occupied a post at Perrysburg, 10 M. to the south. No 
fighting took place in this most genteel of wars, although 
there were several arrests and much confusion. 

A Dr. Russ, who was with Mason's forces on their march to 
Toledo gives a description of the soldiers' jumpy nerves. Various 
jokers had circulated dark stories of the number of sharp-shooting 
Buckeyes waiting for them at Toledo, which so alarmed this amateur 
legion that nearly one half of those who had marched boldly from 
Monroe availed themselves of the road-side bushes to withdraw 
from such a dangerous enterprise. 

President Jackson put an end to the dispute by request- 
ing Michigan to stop interfering with the re-marking of the 
boundary line, but slight outbreaks continued until he pres- 



Vterj? ■ 



'<-. wr*k 



tfstf mwtrrtt gftttfifotk mm 



■ 



7<^ T -- ^®?l N^L*^ 



::■' 




wmr\w r. 



2mm (tuirtotk iukISJvuu, U.'- ■ irtfmrf iferru. 



An American Cartoon (1813) 

Queen Charlotte is represented as saying, "Johnny, won't you take some more 
Perry?" while "Johnny Bull" replies: "Oh! Perry!!! Curse that Perry! One 
disaster after another. I have not half recovered of the Bloody Nose I got at the 
Boxing Match." In a ballad of the day the verse occurs: 
"On Erie's wave, while Barclay brave, 
With Charlotte making merry, 
He chanced to take the belly-ache, 
We drenched him so with Perry." 
"Perry" was a kind of indigestible drink made from pear-juice. The "boxing- 
match" refers to the capture of the "Boxer" by the American schooner "Enterprise." 



112 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

ently removed Gov. Mason from office, and until Congress in 
1836 decided in favor of Ohio. 

The city administration became famous for its efficient 
honesty after 1897, when Samuel Milton Jones (1846-1904), 
a manufacturer of oil machinery, was elected mayor by the 
Republican party. The Independent movement which he be- 
gan was carried on by Brand Whitlock. 

Mayor Jones was re-elected on the non-partisan ticket in 1899, 
1901 and 1903, and introduced business methods into the city govern- 
ment. His integrity in business and politics gained him the nick- 
name "Golden Rule Jones." 

Brand Whitlock was born in Urbana, Ohio, in 1869. He be- 
gan his career as a journalist, but decided to practice law instead. 
After four years of study in Springfield, Ohio, he was admitted to 
the bar in 1897, when he removed to Toledo. In 1905 he was elected 
mayor of that city as an Independent, running against four other 
candidates, and was re-elected in 1907-1909 and 1911 under similar 
conditions. President Wilson in 1913 sent him as minister to Bel- 
gium where he made a distinguished record during the War. In 
1919 he was appointed ambassador to that country. His Memories 
of Belgium under the German Occupation, published in 1918, gives an 
excellent description of "frightfulness" in actual operation. 

The park system includes about 1,000 acres, connected 
by a boulevard 18 M. long-. Toledo University (2,100 stu- 
dents), which include Toledo Medical College, was founded 
in 1880. 

The advantages of Toledo as a lake port have always 
been recognized, and its growth has been rapid. It is situ- 
ated about 4 M. from Lake Erie, and is connected with it 
by a channel 400 ft. wide and 21 ft. deep — sufficient to admit 
the largest vessels from the lake to the 25 M. of docks. To- 
ledo is a shipping point for the iron and copper ores and lum- 
ber of the Lake Superior and Michigan regions, and for petro- 
leum, coal, fruit, grain and clover seed. There are factories 
for motor-cars, plate and cut-glass, tobacco, spices, and bev- 
erages, also lumber and planing-mills, flour and grist mills, 
etc., with products of an annual value of $200,000,000 or more. 
At Butler (367 M.) we enter Indiana. 

880 M. GOSHEN, Pop. 9,525. (Train j passes 4:42; 
No. 41, 9:45; No. 25, 2:07; No. /p, 12:52. Eastbound ; No. 6 
passes 1:06; No. 26, 2:59; No. 16, 4:28; No. 22, 8:32.) Sit- 
uated on the Elkhart River, Goshen was first settled about 
1828 by pioneers from New England. It is the seat of Goshen 
College, the only Mennonite institution of higher education in 
the U. S. The college was founded as Elkhart Institute at 
Elkhart in 1895, and was removed to Goshen in 1903. 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 



113 



The Mennonites are a religious body who nominally follow the 
teaching of Menno Simons (born in Friesland, a province of Hol- 
land, 1492; died 1559), a religious leader, who insisted that true Chris- 
tianity can recognize no authority outside of the Bible and an en- 
lightened conscience. There are Mennonite colonies in Holland, 
France, Russia and Germany, as well as in the U. S. The American 
Mennonites have been largely emigrants from Holland and Prussia. 
The principal American colony is at Germantown, Pa. (first settled 
1683). 

There is a Carnegie library, a city hospital and a fine high 
school building in the town. Goshen is an important agri- 
cultural and lumber market. Its manufactures include flour, 
rubber goods, ladders, iron, wagons, steel tanks, underwear, 
machinery, furniture and farm implements. 

900 M. ELKHART, Pop. 24,277. (Train 3 passes 5 :00 ; 
No. 41, 10:05; No. 25, 7:21; No. 19, 1:10. Eastbound : No. 6 
passes at 12:50; No. 26, 2:45; No. 16, 4:10; No. 22, 8:15.) Elk- 
hart, originally "Elkheart" (the translation of an Indian word), 



La Salle (1643-1687) 
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La 
Salle, was born at Rouen, France, and 
began his explorations from Montreal 
in 1669. Discovering the Ohio River, 
he travelled down possibly as far as 
its junction with the Mississippi and 
then returned. The winter of 1679 
La Salle passed at a post above Ni- 
agara Falls, where he built his famous 
ship, the "Griffin," in which he sailed 
up the Great Lakesi to Lake Michigan, 
and which he sent back laden with 
furs, in the hope of satisfying the 
claims of his creditors, while he him- 
self proceeded westward. In 1682, 
after many adventures, he floated down 
to the mouth of the Mississippi, where 
he erected a monument and cross, took 
possession of the region in the name of 
Louis XIV and named it Louisiana. 
When he returned there two years 
later with four vessels he mistook the 
inlets of Matagorda Bay, in the pres- 
ent state of Texas, for the mouth of a 
branch of the Mississippi and landed there. Fruitlessly wandering through the wil- 
derness in search of the Mississippi River, the Illinois country and Canada, he was 
killed by his followers in March, 1687. 




was so named by the Indians from the shape of an island, near 
the centre of the city, formed by the junction of the two 
rivers, the St. Joe and the Elkhart, which make many turns 
and windings here. There are several parks, in one of which, 
McNaughton Park, a Chautauqua assembly is held annually. 



114 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Elkhart is a city of factories. Band instruments, furni- 
ture, telephone supplies, drugs, carriages, and many other 
products are included among its manufactures, which have 
an annual value of more than $15,000,000. Two Mennonite 

papers are published here. 

-•; 

915*. M. SOUTH BEND, Pop. 70,983. (Train 3 passes 
5:30; Np. 41, 10:38; No. 25, 7 AS; No. 19, 1:43. Eastbound: 
No. 6 passes 12:20; No. 26, 2:22; No. 16, 3:32; No. 22, 7:45.) 
South Bend is situated on the St. Joseph River. Just north 
of the eity is the portage between the St. Joseph and the 
Kankakee Rivers, by means of which Pere Marcpiette in 1675 
and La Salle in 1679 made their way into what is now the state 
of Illinois. 

This' portage was part of the long land and water highway by 
which the mound-builders in pre-historic times conveyed copper 
from thg Lake Superior to points as distant as Mexico and South 
America? 

As there is no place in the U. S. but the south shore of Lake 
Superior where native copper can be mined, its presence in the 
mounds, at remote points is an infallible guide in tracing the com- 
mercial intercourse of the Mound-builders. Copper boulders are 
also found on the shore, and even as far south as Indiana and 
Illinois. That the whole extent of the copper-bearing region was 
mined "in remote times by a race of whom the Indians preserve 
no tradition there is abundant evidence, such as numerous excava- 
tions in the solid rock, heaps of rubble and dirt along the courses 
of the veins, copper utensils such as knives, chisels, spears, arrow- 
heads, stone hammers creased for the attachment of withes, wooden 
bowls for boiling water from the mines, wooden shovels, ladders, 
and levers for raising and supporting masses of copper. The high 
antiquity of this mining is inferred from these facts: that the trenches 
and pits were filled level with the surrounding surface so that their 
existence was not suspected; that on the piles of rubbish were found 
growing trees of great age, such as hemlock trees having annual 
rings showing that they began before the coming of Columbus. 
Copper wrought into utensils is found in the mounds all the way 
from Wisconsin to the Gulf Coast, and the supply is too abundant to 
authorize the supposition that it was derived from boulder drift. 
So expeft were these miners that on the site of the Minnesota mine 
they lifted a copper mass weighing 6 tons, supporting on a frame 
of wood 5 ft. high. 

The earliest white settler was Pierre Navarre, one of 
the fraternity of the coureurs de bois — a wild, rascally, fear- 
less crew of half-breeds and renegade whites, who were the 
first to invade this famous hunting country. The succession 
of sheltered prairies, rounded sand-hills, and reedy marches 
cut by sluggish streams widening into lakes, made a good 
haunt for all game, especially beaver. Now the water is 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 



IIS 



mostly drained away and the land reclaimed, but at one time 
much of the region could be passed over in canoes. 

Pierre Navarre (1785-1874) was the son of a French army officer. 
Besides Canadian French, he could speak the Pottowattomie Indian 
dialect, and had some knowledge of woodcraft and nature signs. In 
his calling of fur trader he made friends with the Miamis and their 
chief, Little Turtle, and when the War of 1812 broke out, offered the 
services of the tribe to Gen. Hull, as well as his own. The offers were 
declined, so the flouted Miamis transferred their allegiance to the 
British under Gen. Proctor. So good a scout was Navarre that a 
reward of $1,000 for his head or scalp was promised by Proctor. 
"He used to say," writes an old chronicler who knew him, "that the 
worst night he ever spent was as bearer of a despatch from Gen. 
Harrison, then at Ft. Meigs, to Ft. Stephenson (now Fremont). 
Amid a thunderstorm of great fury and fall of water, he made the 
trip of thirty miles through the unbroken wilderness and the morn- 
ing following delivered to Gen. Harrison a reply." He died in his 
89th year at East Toledo. 

The University of Notre Dame, in South Bend, with 1,200 
students, is the largest Catholic school for boys and young- 
men in the country, and the American headquarters of the 
Avorldwide Order of the Holy Cross. Notre Dame was 
founded in 1842 by Father Sorin, a Frenchman, who accom- 
plished his object under great difficulties. 



Jacques Marquette 
Jacques Marquette was born at Laon, 
France, and as a Jesuit priest went to 
Canada in 1666, where he was chosen 
to explore the Mississippi River with 
loliet, a young Canadian explorer, in 
1673, the French having begun to gain 
knowledge of the prairies from the In- 
dians. Following a route through 
Green Bay and up the Fox River to 
a point where they made a portage to 
the Wisconsin, Marquette and Joliet 
finally reached the Mississippi. On 
their return to Michigan, Marquette 
fell ill, and his attempt in the follow- 
ing year to found a mission among the 
Indians of the Illinois River proved too 
much for his broken strength. On the 
way home he died beside a little stream 
which enters Marquette Bay on Lake 
Michigan. 




When Father Sorin arrived in Indiana in 1841, leaving behind a 
comfortable life in France for missionary work among the Indians, 
he found on the present site of Notre Dame only waste land covered 



116 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

with snow, and only one building, a tumble down log hut. With $5 
to begin work of erecting a school, he started in courageously, and 
spent five days repairing the hut and fitting it up so that one half 
served as a chapel and the other as a dwelling for himself and 6 lay- 
brothers. In 1844 his little college was chartered as a university by 
the legislature of Indiana. Father Sorin was elected superior-gen- 
eral of the Order of the Holy Cross for life. Besides Notre Dame, 
he founded many other schools and colleges in the United States 
and Canada. He died at South Bend in 1893. His co-worker. Father 
Badin, was the first priest consecrated in the United States. 

The mural frescoes of the main university building are 
by Luigi Gregori, who was sent from the Vatican for this 
purpose, and who spent twenty years on this w y ork and on 
the adjacent Church of the Sacred Heart. The latter is 
famous for its decoration, especially the beautiful altar. St. 
Mary's, a large girls' school conducted by the Sisters of the 
Holy Cross, has also fine buildings of more modern type than 
Notre Dame. 

Schuyler Colfax at one time vice-president of the U. S. 
and for years an intimate and trusted friend of Lincoln's, 
lived here in his youth, as did the late James Whitcomb Riley. 
The soldier who, during the Great War, fired the first gun of 
the American army in France against the Germans was Alex 
Arch, a native of this city. 

Though born in N. Y„ Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) passed Mis 
early years first in New Carlisle, Ind., then in South Bend, where 
his step-father was county auditor. After doing some journalistic 
work, he began his public career by making campaign speeches for 
Henry Clay in 1844. In 1852 he joined the newly formed Repub- 
lican party, and served in Congress from 1854 to 1869. His name 
was widely mentioned for the office of postmaster-general in Lin- 
coln's cabinet, but the president selected another man on the ground 
that Colfax "was a young man, running a brilliant career, and sure 
of a bright future in any event." In 1863 Colfax was elected Speaker 
of the House, and in 1868 vice-president. Four years later Colfax 
was implicated in a corruption charge, which though found ground- 
less by the Senate Judiciary Committee, cast a shadow over the 
latter part of his life. 

James Whitcomb Riley was born in 1853 in Greenfield, Ind. He 
spent several years as a strolling sign-painter, actor, and musician, 
during which time he revised plays and composed songs, and grew 
closely in touch with the life of the Indiana farmer. About 1873 he 
first contributed verses, especially in the Hoosier dialect, to the 
papers, and before long had attained a recognized position as poet- 
laureate of the Western country folk. His materials are the inci- 
dents and aspects of village life, especially of the Indiana villages. 
These he interprets in a manner as acceptable to the naive as to the 
sophisticated, which is saying a good deal for this type of verse. 
Some of his best known books are The Rubaiyat of Doc Sifers, Home 
Folks, A Defective Santa Clans, The Old Swimmin' Hole, An Old Sweet- 
heart of Mine, and Out to Old Aunt Mary's. 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 117 

Among the important manufactories of South Bend are 
plows, sewing-machines, underwear, and motor-cars. The 
annual value of the combined output is around $60,000,000. 

942 M. LA PORTE, Pop. 15,158. (Train ? passes 6:06; 
No. 41, 11:22; No. 25, 8:17; No. 19, 2:22. Eastbound : No. 6 
passes 11:46; No. 26, 1:53; No. 16, 2:57; No. 22, 7:07. ) The 
name La Porte, which in French means "door" or "gate," took 
its origin from a natural opening through the timber that here 
interrupted the wide stretch of prairie. The main street of 
the town is built on an old Indian trail between Detroit and 
points in Illinois. La Porte was first settled in 1830. It is 
situated in the heart of a region of beautiful lakes — Clear, 
Pine, Stone and others — which have given it a wide reputa- 
tion as a summer resort. The lakes furnish a large supply 
of natural ice which is shipped to Chicago. The soil about 
La Porte consists of sandy "timber" loam and vegetable mold, 
especially adapted to growing potatoes, wheat and corn. 
Farm and orchard products were early sources of the town's 
prosperity. There are now numerous manufactures — wool- 
len goods, agricultural engines and implements, lumber and 
furniture, foundry products, musical instruments, radiators, 
pianos, blankets, bicycles and flour. 

975 M. GARY, Pop. 55,378. (Train 3 passes 6:47; No. 
41, 12 :06 ; No. 25, 8 :55 ; No. 19, 3 :08. Eastbound : No. 6 passes 
11:06; No. 26, 1:17; No. 16, 2:12; No. 22, 6:23.) The city of 
( iary was built to order. Fifteen years ago the site of the 
present town was nothing but a waste of sand-dunes and 
swamps intersected from east to west by the Grand Calumet 
and Little Calumet Rivers. In 1906 the United States Steel 
Corporation broke ground here for a series of enormous foun- 
dries and factories, first laying sewers, water mains, gas pipes 
and conduits for electric wires, as well as providing other im- 
provements necessary for life of the city. The Steel Cor- 
poration had chosen this site partly because of its direct con- 
nection by water with the Lake Superior ore region, partly 
because of its proximity to Chicago, and partly because it was 
accessible to Virginia coal and Michigan limestone. The town 
was named Gary in honour of Elbert H. Gary (b. 1846), chair- 
man of the Board of Directors of the Steel Corporation, and in 
succeeding years there came an influx of inhabitants which has 
made Gary the largest city in Northern Indiana. In 1906 
1 he city was non-existent ; in 1910 it had a population of 16.802 ; 
in 1916, 40,000: and the Federal census of 1920 showed that 
Gary now has more than 55,000 inhabitants. 



118 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Gary lies 30 ft. above Lake Michigan on a deep layer 
of sand, once the bed of the lake, which in prehistoric times 
extended several miles farther inland. The city has a splen- 
did harbour which has been extended by the use of the two 
rivers — the Grand and the Little Calumet — both of which 
have been dredged and enlarged. The heart of the town is 
at the intersection of Broadway and Fifth Ave., which are 
lined with handsome buildings, and it is said that within a 
radius of 10 M. of this point, there is a population of 125,000 
people, most of whom are engaged in the industries of the 
Calumet region surrounding Gary. 

The early growth of the town was so rapid that facilities 
for taking care of the new population were inadequate. The 
congestion was extreme, and real estate speculators did a 
thriving business. Today it is said that Gary has constructed 
public utilities and other improvements adequate for a city 
of a quarter of a million people, and there is little doubt that 
the population will reach that figure before many years have 
passed. The city has fine public schools (the Gary system 
lias become famous throughout the United States), a Y. M. 
C. A. (costing $250,000), and an excellent library. The City 
Hall and the Union station are likewise notable for the scale 
on which they are built. 

Although Gary was built to order by the Steel Corporation, its 
officials did not undertake to control or direct the civic affairs of 
the town. Thus, the development of the Gary system of education 
was a natural, rather than an artificial one. There was every oppor- 
tunity for an altogether new departure, in view of the inadequacy 
of school facilities for the fast growing population. The new sys- 
tem was introduced into the Gary schools by William Wirt, who 
had already made some experiments in this direction before 1908 
(when he was called to Gary) at Bluffton, Ind., where he had been 
in charge of the public schools. Some of the fundamental principles 
of Mr. Wirt's plan are that "students learu best by doing" and that 
"all knowledge can be applied." Latin, for example, is not studied for 
mental discipline, but for actual use. The system also involves 
keeping the school buildings in use for entertainment or instruction 
throughout the entire day and evening, and numerous courses are 
provided for adults. It has been said that in Gary "every third per- 
son goes to school." The overcrowded condition in the N. Y. C. 
Schools led to an invitation to Mr. Wirt to introduce the Gary plan 
into several school districts in the boroughs of Bronx and Brooklyn 
in 1914-15. The experiment aroused bitter opposition on the part 
of those who suspected it was a sort of "conspiracy" to educate the 
poorer children for mechanical rather than clerical occupations in 
the interest of "capitalistic industry," and a year or two later N. Y. 
returned to the old methods of education. 

The plant of the United States Steel Corporation, lo- 
cated between the Grand Calumet River and the Lake, has 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 119 

the most complete system of steel mills west of Pittsburgh. 
Within the first ten years after the founding of Gary the 
Steel Corporation had spent $85,000,000 in building furnaces, 
ovens, various foundries and shops, pumping stations, electric 
power plants, benzol plants, Portland cement works, and ore 
docks. Since that time the Steel Corporation's investment 
here has practically been doubled, and a number of subsidiary 
companies have built up great industries in Gary. The 
Universal Portland Cement here, for example, is said to be 
the largest plant of its kind in the world (daily capacity 30,000 
barrels). 

The United States Steel Corporation, organized in 1901 with a 
capitalization of about $1,400,000, was an amalgamation of ten inde- 
pendent companies, of which the Carnegie Steel Co. and the Federal 
Steel Co. (of which Elbert H. Gary was president) were perhaps 
the most important. The consolidation was effected under the aus- 
pices of the late J. Pierpont Morgan, who negotiated the purchase 
of Andrew Carnegie's properties for $303,450,000 in 5 per cent steel 
corporation bonds and $188,556,160 in common and preferred stock. 
"The Value of the Carnegie Steel Co.," says A. Cotter in The Authen- 
tic History of the U. S. Steel Corporation, "was $75,000,000, though 
as a going concern it was worth $250,000,000. Its earnings in a 
single year had been as much as $40,000,000." Mr. Carnegie there- 
upon retired from business. 

On Jan. 1, 1920, the corporation had a surplus of $493,048,000. 
and the book value of the tangible assets was $1,917,730,000. There 
were then outstanding $568,728,000 in bonds and $868,583,000 in com- 
mon and preferred stock. In 1919 strikes and other causes reduced 
the production of finished steel to about 75 per cent of capacity, 
and at the beginning of 1920 the corporation had unfilled orders 
amounting to more than 8,000,000 tons. The gross business of the 
corporation amounted to $1,448,557,835 in 1919 as against $1,744,312,163 
the year before. The corporation's income for 1919, less operating 
expenses and taxes, was in the neighborhood of $150,000,000. 

Statistics of production for 1918 and 1919 are given below: 

Production in Tons 
1919 1918 

Iron ore mined 25,423,000 28,332.000 

Coal 28,893,000 31,748,000 

Pig iron 13,481,738 15,700,561 

Steel ingots 17,200,000 19,583.000 

Finished steel 11,997,000 13,849,483 

Cement 9,112,000 7,287,000 

No. of employees 252.106 268.710 

Total wages $479,548,040 $452,663,524 

The average wage per day (excluding general administration and 
selling force) was $6.12 in 1919 and $5.33 the year before. In 1919 
the corporation spent $1,131,446 for safety work and the like, and 
25 hospitals, with a staff of 162 physicians and surgeons, were main- 
tained. 



120 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



The various works controlled by the Steel Corporation include 
the Carnegie Steel Co, the Illinois Steel Co., the Universal Portland 
Cement Co., the Indiana Steel Co., the Minnesota Steel Co., the Lorain 
Steel Co., the National Tube Co., the American Steel and Wire Co., 
the American Sheet and Tin Plate Co., the Sharon Tin Plate Co., the 
American Bridge Co., the Union Steel Co., the Clairton Steel Co., 
the Clairton By-Product Co., the Canadian Steel Corporation, the Ten- 
nessee Coal, Iron & Railroad Co., the Fairfield Steel Co. and Ihe 
Chickasaw Shipbuilding & Car Co. 

1001 M. CHICAGO, Pop. 2,701,705. (Train 3 arrives 
7:40; No. 41, 1:00; No. 25, 9:45; No. 19, 4:00. Eastbound: 
No. 6 leaves 10:25; No. 26, 12:40; No. 16, 1:30; No. 22, 5:30.) 
The old Chicago portage was used by the Indians in travelling 
by canoe from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi and then to 
the Gulf of Mexico, long before any white man had visited the 
site of the present city on the shore of Lake Michigan. The 




Chicago in 1820 



portage connected the Chicago River, then flowing into Lake 
Michigan, with the Des Plaines River, flowing into the Illi- 
nois River, which in turn discharges into the Mississippi op- 
posite a point not far from St. Louis. It is probable that the 
first white men to visit the city of Chicago were Father Mar- 
quette (1637-1675) and Louis Joliet, though La Salle may 
have used the portage at an earlier date in the course of one 
of his journeys of exploration. It is certain, however, that 
La Salle established a fort at Starved Rock, some miles smith 
of the present city of Chicago, in 1682; and it is in the jour- 
nal of one of La Salle's followers, Joutel, that we find the 
first explanation of the name "Chicago." Joutel says that 
Chicago took its name from the profusion of garlic growing 
in the surrounding woods. 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 121 

Joutcl and his party were in Chicago in March, 1688, when lack 
of provision forced them to rely on whatever they could find in 
the woods. It appears that Providence furnished them with a "kind 
of manna" to eat with their meal. This seems to have been maple 
sap. They also procured in the woods garlic and other plants. 
The name Chicago may have come from the Indian word ske-kog-ong, 
wild onion place. 

After the departure of Father Marquette several other 
mission settlements were attempted at Chicago, but these 
were all abandoned in 1700 and for almost a century Chicago 
ceased to be a place of residence for white men. 

The strategic value of Chicago as a centre of control for 
the regions of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River had 
long been recognized, but it was not until after the Battle of 
Fallen Timbers (1794), that the government took active steps 
to establish a fort here. The treaty made by Gen. Wayne 
with the Indians after that battle provided for the cession 
to the American government of a tract of land at the south- 
ern end of Lake Michigan including the site of the present 
city. In 1803 Ft. Dearborn, a block-house and stockade, was 
constructed by the government on the southern bank of the 
Chicago River near the present site of the Michigan bridge. 

In 1812, during the Indian War of Tecum seh, the Ft. 
Dearborn massacre occurred. The garrison, 93 persons in 
ail, including several women and children, were attempting 
to escape to Ft. Wayne, when they were set upon by some 500 
Indians about a mile and a half south of the fort (southern 
part of the present Grant Park). The Americans killed in- 
cluded 39 soldiers, 2 women and 12 children. The survivors 
were captured by the Indians and though some were tor- 
tured and put to death, the majority finally escaped to civil- 
ization. A tablet now marks the site of the old fort and a 
monument has been erected near Grant Park commemorat- 
ing the massacre. In 1816 the fort was rebuilt and a settle- 
ment rapidly grew up around it. By 1837 the Federal gov- 
ernment had begun the improvement of the harbor and had 
started the Illinois and Michigan Canal. The lake trade grew 
to enormous proportions, and the building of the railways, 
especially the New York Central Lines connecting Chicago 
with the East, as well as other lines connecting it with the 
Northwest, and the South, gave the city an extraordinary im- 
petus. 

At the Republican convention held at Chicago in 1860, 
Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency and 
during the Civil War, Camp Douglas, a large prison camp 
for Confederate prisoners, was maintained here. 



122 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



The Republican national convention, which made "extension of 
slavery" the essential plank of the party platform, met at Chicago 
on the 26th of May, 1860. At this time William H. Seward was the 
most conspicuous Republican in national politics; Salmon P. Chase 
also had long been in the forefront of the political contest against 
slavery. Both had won greater fame than Lincoln, and each hoped 
to be nominated for president. Chase, however, had little chance, 
and the contest was virtually between Seward and Lincoln, who by 
many was considered more "available" because he could, and Seward 
could not, carry the votes of certain doubtful states. Lincoln's 
name was presented by Illinois and seconded by Indiana. At first 
Seward had the stronger support, but on the fourth ballot Lincoln 
was given 334 (233 being necessary) and the nomination was then 
made unanimous. The convention was singularly tumultuous and 
noisy: large claques were hired by both Lincoln's and Seward's 
managers. 

The ereat fire in 1871 was the most serious check to the 




Block House at Chicago in 1856 



city's constantly increasing prosperity, but recovery from 
this disaster was rapid. The solidity of this prosperity was 
demonstrated during - the financial panic of 1873, when Chi- 
cago banks alone among those of the large cities of the coun- 
try continued steadily to pay out current funds. 

The precise cause of the great fire is not known, but it is popu- 
Hrly attributed to Mrs. O'Leary's cow, which according to tradition 
"kicked over the lamp" and started the flames. The fire spread 
over an area of 3 1/3 Sq. M., and destroved 1,700 buildings and 
property valued at $196,000,000. Almost 100,000 people were made 
homeless, and 250 lost their lives. The relief contributions from the 
United States and abroad amounted to nearly $5,000,000, of which 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 123 

about $500,000 was contributed in England. Tbe fire at least gave an 
opportunity to rebuild the old wooden city with brick and stone. 

The later history has been marked on the one hand by 
serious labor troubles and on the other by the remarkable 
achievement of the World's Columbian Exposition (1893). 
The labor outbreaks included several strikes in the packing 
industry, the Haymarket Riot in 1886, and the Pullman Strike 
in 1894. 

The Haymarket Riot grew out of a strike in the McCormick har- 
vester works. Hostility against the employers had been fomented 
by a group of so-called International Anarchists and the struggle 
culminated at the Anarchist meeting at the Haymarket Square. 
When the authorities said that the speeches were too revolutionary 
to be allowed to continue and the police undertook to disperse the 
meeting, a bomb was thrown and seven policemen were killed. Seven 
anarchists were ultimately convicted as being conspirators and ac- 
complices and were condemned to death. Four were hanged, one 
committed suicide, two had their death sentences commuted to life 
imprisonment, and eight anarchists were sentenced to imprisonment 
for 15 years. In 1893 Gov. Altgeld pardoned those still in prison. 

The leader of the Pullman strike, which began in the Pullman 
car works, was Eugene Debs (1855), who was the Socialist candi- 
date for President in the election of 1920, although he was then in 
the penitentiary at Atlanta for violating the Espionage Act during 
the World War. The strike spread to the railways, and caused great 
disorder until President Cleveland dispatched federal troops to Chi- 
cago. 

The exposition was an artistic and educational triumph, 
and its influence on the progress of the city cannot be over- 
estimated. The exposition gave Chicago an artistic con- 
science, one of the direct results of which was the organiza- 
tion of the City Plan Commission, a body which is at work 
reshaping the city in the interests of greater beauty and 
utility. 

The exposition commemorated the 400th anniversary of the 
discovery of America by Columbus. It was held in Jackson Park, 
on the south side of the city, and covered an area of 686 acres. 
The buildings (planned by a commission of architects of which D. H. 
Burnham was the chief) formed a collection of remarkable beauty, 
to which the grounds (planned by F. L. Olmsted), intersected by 
lagoons and bordered by a lake, lent an appropriate setting. The 
fair was opened to the public May 1, 1893, and the total number of 
admissions was 27,500,000. The total cost was more than $33,000,000. 

Owing largely to its central position and to its excellent 
railroad facilities, Chicago has been a favorite city for na- 
tional political conventions ever since the nomination of Lin- 
coln. Others nominated here have been Grant (1866 and 
1872), Garfield (1880), Cleveland (1884 and 1892), Harrison 
(1888), Roosevelt (1904), Taft (1908) and Harding (1920); 



124 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IX THE WORLD 

and in addition a number of candidates who were unsuccess- 
ful, including- Blaine (1881), Harrison (1892), Bryan (1896), 
Taft (1912), Roosevelt (1912), and Hughes (1916). 

To most foreign visitors and even to many Americans 
the growth of Chicago is its most impressive feature. Within 
a little more than 100 years Chicago has grown from a settle- 
ment of 14 houses, a frontier military post among the In- 
dians, to a great metropolis, the second city in America and 
fourth in size among the cities of the world. In 1829 what 
is now the business centre was fenced in as a pasture; in 
1831 the Chicago mail was deposited in a dry goods box; the 
tax levy of 1834 was $48.90, and a well that constituted the 
city's water-system was sunk at a cost of $95.50. In 1843 
hogs were by ordinance barred from the streets. 

There are residents of Chicago still living who can remember 
the early days when the first village school stood on the ground 
now occupied by the Boston Store at Dearborn and Madison Sts. 
Some even insist they remember when wolves were trapped on the 
site of the present Tribune building. In the early period the streets 
of the little town were thick with mire in the rainy season, and it is 
said that signs were placed at appropriate points with inscriptions 
such as "No Bottom Here," "Stage Dropped Here," etc. The first 
improvement of note in Chicago was an inclined plank road in Lake 
St., arranged with a gutter in the center for drainage. It was the only 
safe route over which stage coaches from the west could enter the 
town. 

In 1830 with a population of less than 100, in 1840 with 
4,479, the increase by percentages in succeeding decades was 
as follows: 507, 265, 174, 68, 119, 54, 29, and (1910 to 1920) 
23. Approximately 75 per cent of Chicago's population is of 
foreign birth or parentage. This foreign population is made 
tip principally of ( iermans, about 50 per cent, Irish 12, Aus- 
trian 13, Russian 10, Swedish 6, Italian 4, Canadian, includ- 
ing French Canadians, 4, and English 4. 

It has been said that Chicago is "the second largest Bo- 
hemian city in the world, the third Swedish, the fourth Nor- 
wegian, the fifth Polish and the fifth German (New York 
being the fourth)." This ought not to be construed, however, 
as a reflection on the fundamental Americanism of Chicago's 
citizens. 

The growth in area has kept pace with the growth in 
population. As originally plotted in 1830, the town had an 
area of a little less than half a square mile ; today it covers 
an area of practically 200 Sq. M. Its greatest length (north 
and south) is 26 M., and the greatest width (east and west) 
is 9 M. 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 125 

The Chicago River with its three branches divides the 
city into three sections — the North, South and West sides. 
Technically the downtown or "loop" district (so-called be- 
cause of the elevated railway which encircles the central busi- 
ness section) belongs to the south side, though usually it is 
classified separately. 

The Chicago River formerly flowed into Lake Michigan. It 
was then an exceedingly dirty stream and a menace to health. In 
order to improve the character of the river and also to give the Chi- 
cago adequate sanitary drainage, dredging operations to reverse the 
direction of flow of the river were undertaken, and canals were 
constructed connecting it with the Illinois River. This great en- 
gineering feat was begun in 1892 and completed in 1900. The total 
expenditure on the drainage canals since 1892 has been more than 
$1 00,000,000. 

In no other great city is the business district so concen- 
trated as is the case in Chicago. Within an area of a little 
more than 1 Sep M. are located the principal office buildings, 
department stores, shops, hotels and theatres. Not far from 
the centre of this district is the new City Hall and County 
Building, an 11-story structure costing .$5,000,000. 

Chicago is generally credited with being the original home 
of the steel frame sky-scraper, though there are now many 
higher buildings in New York and elsewhere. The height 
of buildings in Chicago is limited by city ordinance to about 
22 stories. 

At La Salle St., where it is crossed by the southern arm 
of the elevated "loop" is the New York Central Station, an 
impressive building which stands closer to heart of Chicago's 
financial and business section than any other railway station 
in the city. 

Michigan Ave., just to the east of the business centre, 
possesses a truly noble aspect, and the visitor could not 
select a better place to begin his tour of the city. Due to the 
monotonous regularity of the streets and the all-pervading 
soft coal smoke, Chicago presents on the whole a somewhat 
drab appearance, but the view from Grant Park or from the 
lake front (with Michigan Ave. in the foreground) is nearly, 
if not quite, as fine as anything N. Y. has to offer. In Michi- 
gan Ave. are the Public Library (with a beautiful interior), 
the Art Institute (with fine collections of pictures and one 
of the largest art schools in the country), Orchestra Hall 
(the home of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra), the "Black- 
stone" Hotel and a number of fine shops. 

Michigan Ave., by way of Lake Shore 1 >rive on the north, 
and by way of Midway Plaisance on the south, connects 



126 



THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 



with Chicago's fine park system. The principal parks are 
joined by beautiful boulevards encircling the entire city, and 
a delightful two hours' motor trip (45 M.) will enable the 
tourist to visit Lincoln Park on the north, Humboldt, Gar- 
field and Douglas parks on the west, and Washington and 
Jackson parks on the south. 

For reference a general summary of Chicago's "points of 
interest" exclusive of those already mentioned is here given: 




Chicago Fire (1871): Randolph Street Bridge 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 127 

North Side 

Lincoln Park: Academy of Sciences Museum; botanical 
conservatories and a zoological garden with a splendid Lion 
House. Also the fine Saint Gaudens Statue of Lincoln at 
the entrance and other monuments in the park. 

Chicago Historical Society Library and Collection, Dear- 
born Ave. and Ontario St. ; an interesting collection of his- 
toric relics and documents. 

The Municipal pier, at the foot of Grand Ave., built by 
the city at a cost of $4,000,000 ; devoted to recreational activ- 
ities as well as to commercial purposes. Excursion steamers 
may be taken here to various points on the lake. 

The Newberry Librarv, a free reference library, Clark 
St. and Walton Place. 

Northwestern University, in Evanston (at the extreme 
north of the city — actually outside the city limits). North- 
western University is a Methodist-Episcopal institution of 
about 5,000 students. 

Ft. Sheridan. A U. S. military post north of Evanston. 

Lake Forest, a fashionable suburb north of Ft. Sheridan. 

South Side 

Life Saving Station at the mouth of the Chicago River. 

Tablet marking site of Ft. Dearborn, River St., opposite 
the old Rush St. Bridge. 

Crerar Library, East Randolph St., a reference library 
devoted chiefly to scientific subjects; open to the public. 

Board of Trade, La Salle and Jackson Sts. ; visitors may 
obtain admission to gallery overlooking the famous wheat 

Auditorium hotel and theatre building, Michigan Ave. 
at Congress St. ; view of city from tower. 

The Coliseum building, 16th St. and Wabash Ave. ; all 
the national Republican conventions of recent years have 
been held here. 

Field Museum of Natural History (founded by Marshall 
Field), in Grant Park; a fine anthropological and historical 
collection. The Museum, originally housed in a temporary 
building in Jackson Park, was made possible bv the gift of 
$1,000,000 by Marshall Field, who on his death (1906) be- 
queathed a further $8,000,000 of which $4,000,000 has been 
tised for the new building. 

Ft. Dearborn Massacre Monument, 18th St., near the 
lake. 



128 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

Armour Institute of Technology, founded by the Armour 
family, 3300 Federal St. 

Douglas Monument, 35th St. near Lake Michigan. 
Stephen A. Douglas is buried here. 

Stephen A. Douglas (1813-1861) was born in Vermont, but in 
1833 he went west and settled in Jacksonville, 111., where lie was 
admitted to the bar in 1834. He identified himself with the Jackson 
Democrats and his political rise was rapid even for the west. Among 
other offices, he held those of Judge of the Supreme Court of Illi- 
nois, representative in Congress and senator from Illinois. Although 
he did more perhaps than other men, except Henry Clay, to secure 
the adoption of the Compromise Measures of 1850, he seems never 
to have had any moral antipathy against slavery. His wife and chil- 
dren were hy inheritance owners of slaves. In 1858 he engaged in 
a close and exciting contest for the senatorship with Abraham Lin- 
coln the Republican Candidate, whom he met in a series of debates 
over slavery that soon became famous and brought Lincoln promi- 
nently into public favor, though he was defeated in this particular 
contest. 

The Stockyards, Halsted and Root St. In area the yards 
exceed 400 acres ; they have facilities for taking care of 50,- 
000 cattle, 20.000 hogs, 30,000 sheep and 5,000^ horses. The 
great packing plants are clustered around the stockyards. 

The University of Chicago, Ellis Ave., south of 51st 
St. This university was established under Baptist auspices 
and opened in 1892. The words "founded by John D. Rocke- 
feller" (whose donations to the institution form the largest 
part of its endowment) follow the title of the university on 
all its letter heads and official documents. Mr. Rockefeller's 
benefactions to the university have been very large. The 
grounds, however, were given in part by Marshall Field. 
The buildings are mostly of grey limestone, in Gothic style, 
and grouped in quadrangles. With the exception of the 
divinity school, the institution is non-sectarian and has about 
8,700 students of both sexes. 

West Side 

The "Ghetto" District on South Canal, Jefferson, and 
Maxwell Sts. ; Fish Market on Jefferson St. from 12th St. to 
Maxwell. 

Hull House, 800 South Halsted St. This famous settle- 
ment house was established in 1899 by Miss Jane Addams, 
who became head resident, and Miss Ellen Gates Starr. It 
includes a gymnasium, a creche and a diet kitchen, and sup- 
ports classes, lectures and concerts. 

Haymarket Square, Randolph and Des Plaines Sts.; 
scene of the anarchist riots, 



CLEVELAND TO CHICAGO 129 

Sears, Roebuck & Co., a great mail order house which 
does a business of over $250,000,000 a year retail. Guides 
are provided to show visitors around the establishment, which 
is easily reached on the elevated railway. 

Western Electric Co., 22nd St. and Forty-eighth Ave. 
This company supplies the chief part of the equipment of the 
Bell telephone companies of the U. S. and has about 17,000 
employes. 

McCormick Harvester Works of the International Har- 
vester Co. This is one of the 23 plants of the greatest manu- 
facturers of agricultural machinery in the world. 

Chicago's position at the head of the most southwestern 
of the Great Lakes was the primary factor in determining its 
remarkable growth and prosperity. But with the decline of 
water transportation the city has not suffered, for it stands 
at one of the natural cross roads of trade and travel. Today 
it is the chief railroad centre not only in the U. S. but in the 
world. Not counting subsidiary divisions there are 27 rail- 
roads entering Chicago, which is the western terminus of 
the great New York Central System. 

Chicago is thus the focus of the activities of half a con- 
tinent. It is the financial centre of the west and the metrop- 
olis of the richest agricultural section in the country. These 
circumstances have contributed to make it the greatest grain 
and live stock market in the world. But its accessibility to 
the raw materials of industrial development has also made 
it a great manufacturing city. Chicago has more than 10,000 
factories and the output of its manufacturing zone is prob- 
ably more than $3,000,000,000 annually. The principal indus- 
tries and manufactures are meat packing, foundry and ma- 
chine shop products, clothing, cars and railway construction, 
agricultural implements, furniture, and (formerly) malt 
liquors. 



TLIE New York Central Lines comprise 14,242 miles of 
track. As part of the track equipment, there are 40,- 
000,000 wooden ties, worth about $1 each. On these 
ties are 1,727,000 tons of steel rail, worth $96,000,000. There 



130 THE GREATEST HIGHWAY IN THE WORLD 

are 32 tunnels, costing $10,000,000, and 19,000 bridges and 
culverts, costing $60,000,000. Jn the principal cities the New 
York Central's terminals cover about 4,800 acres, assessed at 
more than $100,000,000. The deeds for right-of-way for the 
section east of Buffalo alone number more than 30,000. 



FACTS ABOUT THE NEW YORK CENTRAL 
RAILROAD COMPANY 

Passengers carried annually 66,063,488 

Freight carried annually (tons ) .- 113,534,845 

No. of employes (1919) 95,348 

No. of locomotives 3,841 

No. of passenger cars 3,500 

No. of dining cars 75 

No. of freight cars 144,843 

Operating Revenues. 1910 $ 153,383,599 

Amount paid employes (1919) 148,244,393 

Taxes paid 17,376,123 

Funded debt (bonds ) 748,354,477 

Stock issued 249,849,360 

Actual investment 1,134,500,948 

Excess of investment over outstanding securities 136,297,111 

Operating Revenues, 1880 51,925,374 

Operating Revenues, 1890 59,484,872 

Operating Revenues, 1900 81,029,465 

Operating Revenues, 1910 153,383,599 

Operating Revenues, 1920 338,624,456 



THIS booklet is based on The Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
If you have found it interesting and entertaining, you 
will find the Britannica a source of inexhaustible in- 
terest and enjoyment. This booklet contains sixty-five thou- 
sand words ; the Britannica over forty-four million. This 
booklet is a guide to a single trip ; the Britannica will be your 
guide to any trip you want to take to any part of the world. 
And the best part of it is that you don't have to leave your 
own fireside to go to the four corners of the globe. 

With the Britannica you may make your tours as exten- 
sive as you like, without effort and without expense. You 
may visit the great capitals of Europe — London, Paris, Rome, 
— or the venerable cities of the east — Bokhara, Calcutta, Pekin, 
to name a few, — or even such out-of-the-way places as Kam- 
chatka and Tahiti. But you will also wish to use the Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica as a guide in your business, your profes- 
sion, or your hobby. In every activity of life, whether it per- 
tains to industry, commerce, science, art, sport or recreation, 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica will furnish you on demand, at 
the very moment when you want it, the most readable, enter- 
taining and authoritative information available in English or 
any other language. 

"The Encyclopaedia Britannica is as necessary in your 
home as electric light, and more useful, day in and day out, than 
an automobile. It is as necessary for your children as for 
yourself. It will teach them to find their own way in the great 
realm of knowledge. It will answer their questions, stimulate 
their interest in everything that goes to make up what we call 
education, and, not least important, assist them to choose intel- 
ligently their life work. From childhood to old age, a man's 
life is a kind of journey, and for this greatest of all journeys 
there could be no more interesting companion and no more 
trustworthy guide than the Encyclopaedia Britannica." 



